A Heart Worth Thawing For
by Elsanna Potato Corner
Summary: Brokenhearted and alone, a young peasant girl journeys to the North Mountain with a strange request: to have the legendary Snow Queen freeze her heart and take away the pain. ...But at what cost? [not related, open-ended Elsanna in Part 4]
1. Part 1

**Prompt:** Brokenhearted!Anna goes to SnowQueen!Elsa to have her heart frozen, but melts Elsa's frozen heart.

 **Note:** There are 4 parts to this fic and all of them have been written all in one go and in advance \- therefore, decisions have already been made. We're simply staggering the uploads.

* * *

 **PART 1**

* * *

"...You want me to do _what?_ "

The hall is cold… cold as the white stone carvings on sepulchres, cold as the pale corpses entombed within them. Yet the hall is not so cold as that _voice_ , that voice that issues from the farthest reaches of the room, curling like the mist of breath in frigid air. It rises and dies away like icy vapor, asking again, "You want me to do… what?"

Anna shudders, feeling very small and afraid. She wraps her cloak around herself more tightly, trying to shut out the sudden sound of her own teeth chattering in her head. _Oh, she had been a fool to come… a fool to come…_

But the moment of dread passes. The peasant girl raises her eyes to the figure on the great ice throne, a figure almost like the ice of the throne itself.

"I want you to freeze my heart, O Queen," she says, firmness growing in her voice with every word. She adds the "O, Queen" at the end because she thinks it sounds respectful. She wants to present herself well to this sorceress, to show that she is worthy of her time. Anna is not some silly rascal gone to seek out the Snow Queen for a lark, to laugh and mock at old legends. She… she knows her purpose…

 _Doesn't she?_

On her high throne, the enchantress laughs bemusedly. "Oh, honestly!" And then the witch-woman's voice grows softer… soft as the rustle of snow that tumbles from barren branches. "Come closer, Anna," she says. "Anna is your name, isn't it? That's what you said?"

"Y-yes…" Anna approaches the throne awkwardly, and as she gets closer, she sees more clearly the wide blue eyes of the Snow Queen, sees her white-golden hair. The jewelry at her throat is sculpted ice. And the robe she wears… well, goodness! Ebony ferrets' eyes gleam out at Anna, for ferrets make up the robe in one teeming mass. They shift with their mistress, slide with her, twining around each other in a multitude of ways.

The Queen is... beautiful… Anna had not expected this. She had not known what to expect. The old stories say one thing, then they say another.

"Now tell me," the Snow Queen murmurs gravely, "why would you want me to do that?"

Tears pour down her rosy cheeks as she begins to recant the tale of her heart. "I… I was engaged to this man… Hans… but he didn't… he doesn't… he never loved me. He—" She broke down sobbing into her hands, trying to fight through her emotions to tell the Snow Queen why she had come. "He was only trying to marry me to gain information about my work. I… I discovered a letter… in which his father was asking for more details, and wondering... " She paused to wipe the tears from her eyes, even as they continued to stream without end. "He wanted to know why we weren't yet wed. So when he came home… I confronted him… and he tried to lie about it all. But I had the letter… and I showed it to him… and—"

"Enough." The words are spoken not unkindly, but in a tone that gets Anna to stop trying to force the words out of her mouth. She trembles terribly, not from the cold that surrounds her but from the relentless stream of emotion that she had kept bottled in since the confrontation with her fiance...ex-fiance. A necessary action for her to survive the trek to the Snow Queen's palace.

"This man hurt you…" The witch continues, "So you want to freeze your heart?"

"I just want the pain to stop." Anna answers with a bitterness that surprises even herself.

"I see." There is no indication of any particular reaction in her voice, nor on her face, which is as smooth as the ice that make up the foundation and walls of this frigid palace. "And why did you come to me?"

The question gives Anna pause, and she furrows her brow. "I heard of your abilities," she explains haltingly, her shoulders hunching as she speaks. "That you could—"

"Yes," the witch-queen interrupts, and Anna's words are a weak breeze in the gale of this sorceress' presence, petering out as she leans forward, eyes gleaming. "My powers are strong. I can do what you ask." Anna doesn't know whether to feel relief or terror. "My question is, _why_ come to me? There are other ways to dull pain. Other ways to… stop a heart."

There is no doubt to the implications behind the Snow Queen's words, and something bitter settles upon Anna's tongue at the ghastly thought, almost on par to the bitterness she holds towards her unfortunate situation. She has...entertained the idea before, yes, but at the same time...she…

"I still desire to live. I simply don't want to feel the pain that comes with it," Anna carefully replies under the hawk-eyed scrutiny of the witch-queen before her. The air grows colder at the conclusion of her words, and the ferrets composing the woman's cloak shift restlessly. Anna fights back the primitive urge to shiver, to warm herself in this frigid fortress.

The Snow Queen taps a slender finger to her chin in thought.

With an even tone, she inquires of the peasant girl in front of her, "You are aware, Anna, that all magic comes with a price?"

"I am," Anna replies hastily, giving no thought to the consequences of what she is requesting—at that moment she simply does not care. "I cannot live with this pain, no matter what the cost—so long as I am still alive."

The sorceress simply sat staring at her for a long moment, sapphire blue eyes gazing piercingly as though they weren't merely looking _at_ her, but looking _through_ her.

Anna began to shiver under the unnervingly focused gaze which was resting on her without wavering.

The next call of her name comes so quietly that the icy walls don't catch the echo, brushing against her ears with intimate delicacy. All passing reminders of a world beyond those haunting blue eyes and emptiness fade away.

"Anna," the sorceress says, "tell me, what do you think that makes living?"

For the first time since walking into the chamber, Anna's uncertainty lifts. She meets the witch-queen's eyes without flinching, and steadies the limp shivers wracking her body. The sorceress rears back. Expectantly. Like she's waiting for someone to read the next part of the script.

"Better than this," Anna says.

"It's better than living with this god forsaken _ache_ in my chest that serves as a constant reminder of him." Anna glares into the impassive eyes staring her down. "If my heart was frozen...if I can no longer feel for him—feel anything for that matter—perhaps I will be better off in the end."

The Snow Queen remains silent for several moments, merely staring at her with that cold, piercing gaze. And then, at last: "Would you really? Hm? I do wonder how beneficial this would be for you in the end."

The sorceress paused as if in thought for a moment, before continuing in a steady even voice. "Very well then, Anna. I shall do this, however… you must remain with me a fortnight before I will."

Anna raises an eyebrow, staring hard at the impassive face before her looking for any indicator as to why the woman needed her to remain for so long, yet it was for naught. "A fortnight?" She sighs resignedly. "Very well, if that is what you require of me, then that is what I shall do."

"Then it is settled. You shall accompany me for the next fortnight here in this palace. Once the fortnight has passed, then if you still desire that your heart be frozen forevermore I will do so."

Suspicion about the need to delay nudges against the edge of her thoughts, but for now, Anna merely holds her tongue and nods. The Snow Queen is a powerful being, after all. She's lucky the sorceress has allowed her to speak her case without killing her outright. Like some of the stories about her—the trail of bodies in her wake.

The idea of death brushes against her mind, as it had in nights past after the reveal of Hans' deception, and Anna's bottom lip trembles ever so slightly.

"Fear not, young Anna… if I wished to do you harm, I would not invite you to stay with me. Only those who give me cause are led to see the error in their judgement."

Anna blanches at the implication of the Snow Queen's final statement. _If this sorceress is able to freeze a heart, what else might she be able to do to a person with her magic?_ Her imagination begins to fill in the blanks for her, images of bodies with spears of ice piercing them fill her thoughts. She clasps her hands at her waist, only to wring them together. _Perhaps the legends are true…_

"Ah. But you must be tired from the journey to my mountain," the sorceress says, rising up from her icy throne. The ferrets making up her coat shift with her, and one of them detaches itself from the furry mass, bounding towards Anna with its tiny paws. She bites back a squeak of surprise at the creature so close to her, circling her feet twice before heading for a hallway to the right. It stops a second later, turning its beady black eyes in her direction and flicking its tail as if to indicate that she follow.

"Her name is Jen. She will show you to your quarters," the Snow Queen's cool voice drifts to her ears, and the sound of ice heels clicking on an equally icy floor ring throughout the room. Anna turns her head in time to see the witch-queen making her way to the opposite hallway, not even bothering to glance back at her new...guest?

 _Is that what I am?_

Anna ponders the thought as she follows the ferret… _Jen_ … to her chambers for the next while. _An entire fortnight? Forced to suffer through this tortuous existence that much longer…_

She sighs as she enters the room before closing the door behind her when she sees Jen scurrying off back towards the throne room. With no care to examine her surroundings, she crawls up onto the bed and pulls her knees up to her chest as the wracking sobs she fought to contain in the presence of the Snow Queen consume her.

* * *

A few hours later she wakes groggily to a knocking at the door, her arms and legs splayed across the bed wildly. "I-I'm awake, I'm awake. Come in," she calls out in answer.

Without further prompting, the Snow Queen sweeps into her quarters, shoulders bare of her living cloak—or anything else. Her flesh is pale, but not deathly so; no, more like snow, or porcelain, smooth and unblemished. The only color on her is the shimmering blues of her evening dress—which match the sharp azure of her eyes—and the deep redness of her lips.

"How do you feel, Anna?"

How _did_ she feel? "Cold," is what she says, although Anna is sure that is not what she was being asked. "My queen. Tired." _In pain. Not quite dry of tears._

"My apologies for interrupting your rest," is what the ice witch replies, and this surprises Anna. "However, I did not wish for my guest to go hungry during her stay. I eat very little, and at odd hours, and I am unused to entertaining any human guests." Anna wonders what manner of inhuman guest the Snow Queen entertains. Then her stomach rumbles, quite audibly, and her cheeks grow pink.

"Ah. Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. I am a little… peckish."

Anna is sure she is not imagining the amused twinkle in those eyes that had been so cold before. "Then I shall certainly provide for you."

Anna sees the sorceress raise her left arm, hand outstretched towards the doorway.

"If you will follow me, I will escort you to the dining hall. Once you're seated, I will bring you some food." The Snow Queen then turns to exit, though she glances back, watching for Anna to be ready.

Anna gets herself up off of the bed and straightens out her clothing after having slept in it. "Please, lead the way." For the moment, her hunger was overtaking her emotional distress for priority—as evidenced by another low rumble from her stomach. She ducks her head slightly, cheeks getting slightly darker as she mumbles, "Sorry…"

"Do not worry yourself over it. I left you sleep a rather lengthy period having forgotten that your needs likely differ greatly from my own with regards to eating."

The Snow Queen continues without further ado, and Anna finds herself mesmerized by the rhythmic swinging of her gold-white braid with every step. She follows behind, a careful five steps back.

 _She's being...awfully accommodating._ All sorts of wild stories surround the witch-queen of the North Mountain, but none spoke of her allowing a human to live and dine in her fortress. Much less a simple peasant girl like Anna whose coordination had her tripping over tongs more often than not back in the smithy.

Anna had to wonder what exactly the price was that she would have to pay in order for the magic to be worked on her... And what it would feel like to have her heart frozen. Some claimed that the Snow Queen herself had frozen her own heart to procure more power, and possibly even immortality. Anna's eyes are drawn once again to her host's back; the confident, languid stride of her long legs. She looks like something out of time, supernatural as she calls ice from the atmosphere to whorl around her.

With each stride the blue gown shimmers, iridescent waves of colour splay from the skirt as it sways gently around her hostess' legs. Anna, so deeply fixated upon the wondrous spectacle fails to observe the sorceress halt in front of her as the dress continues to reflect the lighting, knocks right into the Snow Queen's back.

"Oh!" Anna exclaims as shock and fear brew within. "I-I'm… I'm so, so terribly sorry!" She frowns.

The sorceress turns to look upon her, a single eyebrow canted. "Was something distracting you? Or are you merely yet languishing over other matters?"

"No… no, it was your dress, actually…" she starts hesitantly, though raising her head such that she actually looks the other woman in the eye. "The way the light hits it when it moves, the material produces such an interesting array of colours—" She halts her speech, thinking back to some of the legends and yet does not wish to upset her hostess. _Is it really crafted from ice like the tales say?_

"Like everything in my palace, it is made of ice," the Snow Queen says, answering her unspoken question. "I see no reason to use the lesser material of those in the valley."

"Isn't it cold, though?" Anna blurts out unthinkingly. Stupidly.

The sorceress shakes her head gently from side to side for a moment. "Is water wet?" she asks of her guest, though there is no lilt of humour to her steady, almost calculated tone.

Anna ducks her head once more, cheeks warming as additional blood seeps into them from embarrassment. She stammers apologetically, "I-I'm… so sorry… I mean, _of course_ it would be cold, right? It is ice, after all." A stilted, mirthless chuckle passes her lips. _I am such an idiot… first I bump into her, then I ask her if her ice dress is cold._

"Please, have a seat, and I will fetch your supper."

Anna finds a seat on the side of the long table, pulls the chair out, and sits down to await the food.

 _Speaking of which...how_ does _she get food up here?_ Anna stiffens in her seat, face paling. _Unless...what if it's ice food? What if she just...chews on icicles or something like that? What if she eats the ferrets? Are the ferrets made of ice and snow too? What if_ —

A set of doors open nearby, jolting her out of her panicked thoughts.

She turns to watch the queen approaching, carrying a plate. Once the plate is placed in front of her, she looks at the food upon it.

"I wasn't sure what you would want, so I gathered a bit of everything—dried meats, berries, carrots, cheeses, and bread. If you'll excuse me a moment, I shall go get you some tea as well."

"Thank you, that would be very nice." Anna turns to her plate, seeing the food before her and her stomach rumbles again much more loudly than the last time. She glances over her shoulder quickly to see that the sorceress has already left the room, and lets out a sigh of relief that her stomach was not heard that time. Returning her attention to the plate, she begins to eat—starting with some bread and cheese.

A few minutes pass before she hears the nearby doors opening again; this time she doesn't spare a glance their way, expecting the return of her hostess. She steps into view soon enough, carrying a tray with a large teapot, two cups with saucers and spoons, and two small bowls.

The Snow Queen sets the silverware down off to the side and begins pouring tea into the cups. Anna opts to watch her host in silence, not quite sure how to speak her thoughts on how nice the woman is being to her considering her circumstances. The redhead watches as an abundant amount of fresh steam billows out from the teapot to cup—no doubt from a freshly brewed batch of tea.

 _There's so much steam! Hmm...must have to do with the crazy temperature difference in this place. I wonder how she even heat the tea up to begin with…_

Anna snaps out of her thoughts to the sound of sizzling and realizes that it's coming from the witch-queen's hand on one of the filled cups.

 _That must be blistering hot!_

"Have you forgotten already that I am the true master upon ice and snow?" an amused voice speaks as their eyes briefly meet for a moment

Anna's face heats up at the thought of her inner musings being voiced out loud. _God, I am a real dolt sometimes!_

"W-Well, I assumed that the tea… would be cold, considering… you know." She gestures the whole room, and points at the fog coming out of her mouth. The Snow Queen doesn't seem amused at that, or a bit irritated. Anna remains silent at the threatening blue eyes.

A teacup slides over in front of her. "Drink, it's still quite warm."

Anna raises an eyebrow and takes it in her hand. It's not as hot as she expects it to be.

She takes a sip from the cup, and surprisingly, it's much better than she expected.

 _Wow, I've never had tea like this back home._

Even in such a cold place such as the Snow Queen's palace, Anna was feeling warmer than she ever had been before.

"You like the tea?" her host asks.

"It's...very good," she says, lowering the cup. "How...How did you make this?"

The Snow Queen, Witch Mistress of the Ice and Snow and All Things Tea, apparently, takes a slow sip, dead eyes set on Anna. "The usual method of mixing hot water with the appropriate leaves," she says. "I assume you saw some on your way up."

A different, unfortunately very familiar, flush of heat makes its way up to Anna's cheeks. "That isn't what I meant."

"Oh?" the sorceress queries, and something in her voice causes Anna to fidget.

 _Did she really not understand?_

Anna was trying to formulate the question she wanted to ask in her head without making it sound stupid if she said it out loud.

"Like...how did you make this tea so hot?" She hesitated, "I don't know...I mean, for someone who's cold," she immediately felt embarrassed by the last sentence, "I mean, not that cold! Not as in super mean, since you've been really nice and considerate and…" she didn't know how to finish.

The Snow Queen says nothing, and Anna averts her eyes into the safety of her lap.

 _I feel like no matter which way I try to go in the conversation, it makes little difference._ Anna's nerves thrum as she glances up to meet a pair of sharp, cobalt eyes.

"You are a...curious one. With what it is you fixate on," the witch-queen says at last, tapping her slender fingers idly against the side of her own teacup. "If you must know, I use a fire like anyone else. Mistress of the Ice and Snow I may be, but even I know that tea is best served warm. And in regards to your observations of my generosity and kindness...I simply find you curious, is all." Her lips curl into a smile that holds nothing. "Make no mistake, I am still very capable of killing you. Or freezing your heart right now."

Anna's brow furrows. "Then why—"

"Boredom. Curiosity. It has been so long since I've had a guest who wasn't attempting to kill me for the sake of some petty attempt at glory," the Snow Queen answers with a sigh, sipping at her tea and causing steam to waft around her from the hot liquid meeting her probably cold lips. Her equally chilly eyes meet Anna's over the cup's rim. "And I find you rather intriguing, indeed. It would be a shame to have you freeze so soon."

Instead of her cheeks flaring like they usually would with such words, Anna simply averts her eyes back to her food. To a palette far more colorful than her. "I'm...I'm not really all that intriguing, Your Majesty. If I was, then maybe Hans—"

Her breath catches at his name, and her bottom lip trembles. A vice clamps around her throat, robbing her of the ability to speak as the memories flash through her mind's eye once more.

It still hurts. Of course it does.

"There. Intrigue." The Snow Queen's voice is quiet, yet it ghosts over her ears like a chilly fog.

And much like a chilly fog—or cold in general, for that matter—Anna does not take the morbid fascination with her pain too kindly.

Anna snaps viciously, "My shattered heart _INTRIGUES_ you? My _pain_?" She casts a hard glare at the sorceress.

The Snow Queen sits watching her for a moment in silence, seemingly to confirm that Anna is finished talking. She raises her hand in a placating fashion. "No. Pain—" she begins, but halts suddenly.

"No, Anna. It is not your pain or your broken heart which intrigues me." She pauses for a breath, then continues, "It is that you come to me willingly, with no visible inclination of threat or malice towards me. That you would request your heart frozen, rather than moving on—in one manner or another. That when I stipulated your stay prior to freezing your heart, you appeared to be bothered by it and yet you did not hesitate to acquiesce to my demand. That you seem to feel emotion so deeply, yet are willing to give it up over one man. These are the reasons you intrigue me."

Her eyes are like a blizzard in how Anna can't tell what's going on in the sorceress' head. Attempting to discern if such a trivial reason is really the...reason— _there I go being redundant again..._ —for the delay would be like attempting to catch one particular snowflake amidst the storm.

"I do not understand why one would wish to freeze their heart over such a reason," the Snow Queen says, sighing once more and placing her teacup back down on the table. "By delaying it, perhaps the reasoning will make itself clear."

Anna sighs in exasperation, then she sobs out, "What more reasoning do I _need_? He lied to me, he was only using me, and he broke my heart." She pauses a moment to wipe the fresh tears from her eyes yet again this day. "And… the worst part… was when he said… 'Oh Anna. If only there was someone out there who loved you.' And… and… he was RIGHT..." She lets her face fall into her hands, sniffling through the body-shaking heaves of her sorrow. She mumbles from within her hands, "He was right… there is nobody out there who loves me. There never will be, either…"

"Hm. I'd say it's all a matter of finding the right person," she hears the Snow Queen muse, and Anna bristles at her flat tone. She takes her hands away from her face, glaring at the sorceress through her tears.

"Excuse me?"

"I find it difficult to believe that out of all of the humans in the world, you won't ever find one who can love you. The world is a rather big place, Anna. Stranger things exist beyond selfish men who care for nothing but their own advancement." Her host chuckles, but it is devoid of mirth. "I doubt the man even loved anyone. I don't understand why you would resort to such a measure over someone of that ilk. Far better to simply realize he is not worth another second and seek the company of those with...better quality."

"You make it sound so easy," Anna mumbles with a small bite to her voice.

"Is it not, though?"

"What would _you_ know about love!?" Her voice rings through the dining hall and fades into a pregnant silence.

 _Oh, OH GOD...I can't believe I just raised my voice at the sorceress! I am as good as dead now. She will surely strike me dead after tha-_

The Snow Queen's bitter laugh breaks the atmosphere and vibrates the air around them.

The sound is hollow and devoid of all mirth, plucking at a cord in Anna that almost pulls a gasp from her lips. Suddenly the air is thick and the room too warm and the redhead shifts uncomfortably in her seat. Anna watches as something she can't put a name to flashes across the woman's expression so fast that she isn't sure she'd seen it at all.

"Indeed," the Snow Queen hums, rising from her chair with an easy sort of grace that Anna knows she could never hope to match. "What _would_ the ice witch of the North Mountain know about love. Goodnight, Anna."

 _Wait...what?_

Her host is gone before her tongue can even unravel itself and form proper words, leaving her alone at the table with only her half-eaten food for company. The Snow Queen's teacup still sits on the other end, steam slowly wafting up and curling lazily in the frigid air.

So the Snow Queen does know how to love.

Anna's silent, staring at the cup of tea that she hasn't finished. Her words ring in her ears and she knows she's gotten out of line. The Snow Queen did love someone once… And she wonders, who would love someone like her… so beautiful and yet, dangerous—most importantly, who would hurt her that would make the queen isolate herself from the world?

It's strange. But as the blonde said… it's intriguing.

After dinner, she decides to explore the ice castle. There's really nothing to see. It's only ice, ice, and even more ice. There's a library as she wanders around, at some point. Anna's not really the type to be interested in books, but if there's anything that talks about this person that will be freezing her heart soon, she's more than interested.

She decides to stay and occupies herself for a while. At the same time, she also knows, that she should find the Snow Queen and apologize for saying such a thing. She sighs as she shuts a rusty old book together.

The redhead knows she also doesn't know anything about love, so it's not her position to be asking such a crude question. She should really apologize.

She looks down at her ferret escort. Jen's whiskers twitch. As reassuring sentiments go, it's not particularly uplifting. The best thing she can take from the ferret's expression is that maybe she'll find her heart frozen a lot faster than the sorceress promised. Or maybe she's projecting all over a ferret that used to be part of a coat.

"You can probably find her, right?" Anna asks resignedly.

Jen's tiny ferret head bobs up and down.

"Great."

She waits for the ferret to move and show her the way, but instead she simply continues to stare at her.

"Are you...going to show me where she is?"

Jen shakes her head and Anna nearly throws her hands in the air in exasperation. If she knew how infuriating being at the ice palace would be, perhaps she would've sought help elsewhere…

"I want to apologize for...for speaking out of line, alright? So can't you just help me fix things with your mistress?" she pleads, crouching down to keep her neck from aching at the height difference. At another shake of that furry head, Anna frowns. "Am I...not allowed where she is?"

A nod.

 _Oh._ She could work with that.

"I'll try tomorrow then?"

She doesn't know why she's phrased it as a question, but the ferret nods all the same and scurries off, pausing in the doorway to look back at her. She blinks slowly, tilting her head, and Anna takes that as her cue to follow. Her guide leads her back to her chambers, leaping onto her bed instead of leaving.

"Oh? Are you staying with me tonight?" she asks, unable to help a small smile at the sight of Jen curling up on one of the pillows. Her heart still hurts, burdened by the weight of her unfortunate situation, but she can't help but feel it's a bit...lighter. In this moment.

* * *

 **Our contributors for Part 1:** The Wandering Quill, glittering-snowfall, pankite, nopantsparade/Issandri, metaphoricalbutton/Immi, hogwarts-is-frozen, winterssummerallthefunner, iamrottingunman, and a-brown-turtle.


	2. Part 2

**PART 2**

* * *

Anna awakes to the warmth of sunlight on her face and a small nose sniffing along her forehead.

She shuffles away futilely, trying to hide in her pillow. A tiny, clawed paw bats against her eyebrow reproachfully, and she dares to crack an eye open. Jen, peering at her from atop the headboard, blinks back at her. Like the first few mornings of this had only taught the ferret that enforced wake up calls were exactly what every human dreamed of.

"Jen…" Anna whines, "not today…"

The ferret chitters inquisitively, nuzzling her furry face against Anna's cheek. A soft tongue darts out, joining the sadly adorable assault on her willpower. Anna blearily reopens her eyes, trying very hard to scowl at the fuzzy creature. It somehow turns into a smile halfway through, and she blames her waking brain on taking inspiration from Jen and turning its whole self upside down.

Heavily, she sighs.

"Okay… maybe today."

Jen chirrups in delight, standing at swift attention over the blankets before scampering over to the chamber doors and—in a quick move that Anna still has trouble believing—trots right through them. Anna huffs, tossing herself back into her pillow.

One day, she promises herself, she won't be won over by cuteness and the lure of a warm breakfast.

Dragging herself slowly out of bed, she slogs over to the dresser full of clothes that the Snow Queen has made available. She thinks. No magic icicles showed up to skewer her when she tried them on the second night, and that's as close to permission as she's likely to get at this point.

For someone who claims to have problems with boredom, the enchantress excels at being so constantly busy that Anna hasn't caught sight of her since her arrival. Or, maybe more fairly and a lot more accurately, since Anna brought up her love life. Which she hasn't had a chance to apologize for thanks to the woman's disappearing act.

It has been five days since her arrival at the Snow Queen's lair. Five days spent wandering the icy fortress and alleviating her inevitable boredom by reading in the library, playing with Jen and the other ferrets, wallowing in her misery within her chambers…

Anna pauses in dressing for the day, catching sight of her distorted reflection on the icy surface of the dresser.

Her hair is as unkempt as ever in the mornings, resembling a veritable bird's nest. Or maybe Jen had a hand...paw...in it. But her complexion…

She grumbles below her breath and doesn't even take another glance on the surface. It's embarrassing, really. Even if nobody was there to see the mess, she's still pretty conscious about her hair. And then there's Jen behind her, looking at her curiously and her furry head tilting. She frowns. "Shoo, go away."

Jen stays. Anna roll her eyes as the animal scurries towards her instead.

"Look, if you know how to fix my hair, you might as well do it now, because it's going to take forever and I'm not willing to sacrifice my time for this."

Jen doesn't reply. Of course she doesn't.

Despite the disaster of her hair, she wonders where the Snow Queen has been for the past five days. It's quite peculiar that this is her home… yet, she's nowhere around. Maybe Anna just has to look harder. Or it's possible that the Snow Queen is avoiding her. She doesn't blame her though.

That question would leave anyone with a game of avoidance and questioning.

She huffs a breath out and cross her arms. Jen stares back at the teal eyes, and brows cross with frustration. "You really can't tell me where she is?"

The animal shakes her head.

"She's supposed to freeze my heart, and yet she's nowhere to be found."

Anna sees a shrug coming from Jen, but it might've been an imagination. And the animal's probably telling her to 'go find her yourself, your problem is not my problem, I'm just her pet.' It gets a little annoying.

"I've tried finding her myself," Anna grumbles testily as she begins working on her hair. It was a little distracting having Jen stare unblinking at her while she worked but she ignores that as best as she can. "But she's trying her damnedest to avoid me."

Another tiny shrug and Anna rolls her eyes. "You are no help." She swears she saw the rodent flash her a grin at that statement and simply rolls her eyes again.

Fifteen minutes later, Anna walks out of her room with her hair finally tamed enough to fit into a loose ponytail. Her furry companion trails along hot on her heels. The redhead has one goal on her mind. Find the Snow Queen and apologise for her behaviour and this time she refuses to stop scouring the place until she finds the elusive woman.

She doesn't even make it past the hall of her room when her stomach lets out a loud growl. Her cheeks turn pink at Jen makes a noise that sounds almost like a giggle and Anna crosses her arms over her stomach.

"Okay, breakfast first then Snow Queen…"

Given her freedom—well, as much freedom as she can get staying within the boundaries of the Snow Queen's domain—Anna has long since located the kitchen area. Surprisingly, it isn't located inside the castle itself, but hewn into the mountain face behind the icy fortress, accessible via a tunnel of ice. Its strange location makes sense...sort of. After all, having a fire in a palace made of ice isn't—

Her thoughts slam to a halt upon seeing the tail end of a blonde braid disappearing around a nearby hallway.

Her eyebrows follow suit, zooming up to her hairline. With a startled squeak from Jen coming up behind her, Anna sprints down the hall, the hem of her dress catching the tips of her boots as she races around the corner, heart alive and throbbing in her ears.

Several beats go by before she lands her eyes on the Snow Queen again—and whatever sense of accomplishment she could get out of that screeches to as much of a stop as she has to, because the sorceress has stopped walking away, and Anna nearly topples into her out of sheer shock.

The Snow Queen shows no sign of such baser emotions. Cool and imposing, her gaze is set on Anna under a mask of careless indifference. Just a handspan away, frosted waves of blonde glisten in the morning light. It's a bright, distracting lie. The dozens of eyes making up her coat shine brighter and show more fascination in Anna than she does. She might as well be a statue. Someone's soulless vision of beauty and power gone wrong.

That must be what it's like, Anna realizes with a start. What it's really like to have your heart frozen over. No interest. No pain. No… anything. She doesn't know if the feeling welling up in her chest is envy or pity, but there's the daunting, dawning thought that even something that simple is beyond a woman like this.

She swallows it down. "I'm sorry," she says.

Silence follows her words, and even the ferrets grow still.

"I...It took me a while to figure it out," Anna continues haltingly, wrestling her gaze away from the otherworldly woman before her. Looking at that impassive face, staring into those dead eyes… "That you'd...done something. Something similar, perhaps? And that you know more about love than I th—"

"Why are you apologizing?"

 _Unbelievable._

"E-Excuse me?" She can't help the frustration leaking into her tone at facing this...this... _wall_ with her elusive host again. "I'm apologizing because I said something upsetting! I not only raised my voice at you, I also assumed things I had no business of—"

The Snow Queen lifts a hand, and Anna's mouth snaps shut so hard, her teeth clack together painfully. She flinches away on instinct, expecting an attack...but there is none.

"I wasn't upset," She stated simply and Anna felt a shudder pass through her. "I had some unexpected business to attend to so I left to take care of it. You raising your voice was of little concern to me."

"All the same, I was wrong for making assumptions, disrespecting you in your own home, and speaking without thinking about what I was saying—particularly to somebody who I came to see, asking a favour of them, and who is taking me in for a length of time. And I owe you an apology, whether you believe it to be necessary or not." Anna takes a deep breath, then curtseys deeply. "I truly am sorry, Your Majesty. And… I understand if you no longer wish for me to remain or to grant said favour."

The sorceress stands stoically, her eyes sweep over Anna. "Most intriguing, indeed." She hums for a moment. "Thank you, Anna. Few deign to show me any respect, yet here you are… ingratiating yourself over a trifling issue. You continue to surprise me at every turn."

She smiles, but again it holds nothing. Anna can't help but wonder if it's more of a habit at this point, or some attempt to make her feel more at ease. Regardless of that...it just feels...wrong.

She chews on her bottom lip nervously. Anna doesn't believe that behind the mask of coldness and emptiness, lies nothing. Somewhere she knows there's something warm.

"Your Majesty…. May I ask something? N-No pressure!"

The blonde tilts her head but she doesn't oppose to it. She's curious. "Of course."

Anna plays with her fingers. "Have you… ever loved someone to get that reaction when I asked you that question?"

"Once," comes the terse reply. "A very long time ago, I was loved… and I was in love." The flat, even tone of her reply is disconcerting to Anna.

Though Anna was watching the Snow Queen carefully as she responded, and she thinks she notices something—a minor shift, nearly imperceptible, and yet… She suspects she saw the eyes of the sorceress grow every so slightly darker, paired with a _very_ small furrow of her eyebrows. _She… can't FEEL emotion, but… her body… Does it still respond to the triggers?_

Anna is hesitant to ask further of her, but still… her curiosity wins her over. With no small amount of trepidation she inquires of her hostess, "If… if I may? What happened? Did somebody… freeze _your heart_?"

Those sapphire eyes appear to darken a little more. The woman starts walking past Anna, heading back towards the kitchen. A few seconds later, when Anna starts thinking that she is being left alone—ignored once again—she hears the click of heels stop and a muted voice follows. "Come. If you truly desire to know my story… Well, if the past few days are any indication, I know you will not stop until you find out anyways, so… follow me." She hears a long, deep sigh from behind her. "I will prepare us some tea, so we can sit and you can try to warm up a bit while I tell you."

After they are seated at a small table in the kitchen, fresh steaming cups of tea occupying transparent blue cups upon it, her hostess finally begins her tale.

"Many, many years ago," she begins, "I was a young princess. My parents were in power, and I was courting a maiden in secret. In typical fashion, however, many neighbouring kingdoms sought to bridge an alliance through marriage. Many a prince came with their fathers to speak with my own, hoping to gain my hand. I tried to dissuade my father of the idea, but one day he came to me before bed, telling me that a marriage had been arranged. I told him that I would not marry the prince, that I was already in love with another. Yet he persisted. In the night, I snuck out of the castle and found my beloved, and we ran away."

She pauses, taking a sip of her tea along with a deep breath of air. "We were happy for a few days… until we were found by my parents, along with the prince and his father. The visiting royals were outraged, demanding that I proceed with the marriage to the prince and for my love to be exiled. I fought back, stating that she would not be exiled while there was still breath in my body."

She pauses once more, voice growing a tad softer.

"...That was when the young prince's father stated, 'No. Over _her_ dead body' as he stared over my shoulder. At the time I wasn't aware of what I was doing. Shock, rage, and fear consumed me. The next thing I knew, I was looking upon my parents and the other royals, as their skin and hair grew pale. It… wasn't until their bodies had frozen solid that I was able to turn around and… there stood my beloved, arm outstretched reaching for me, a statue of ice herself."

Anna can't help it. She gasps, her hand slapping over her mouth, her eyes wide and tears forming in their corners. "That's _awful!_ "

The Snow Queen shifts and set her cup down, a hissing sigh flowing from her lips accompanied by a plume of fog. "It was. I did all I could think to do, but I was just as powerful then as I am now," she says wryly, "although lacking in control. My family, my lover, stayed frozen. Ice spread throughout the kingdom, and I could do nothing to stop it—no-one could."

"So, I did the only thing I could think to do… I ran, and I kept running until I found this isolated mountain—I knew that I could not be around people again after what had happened. Once here, I began to learn to use this power. It started with small things at first—freezing a tree, then a large branch. Eventually, over the course of several long and gruelling months, I honed my powers to the point where I could create new things as well using the snow around me. And yet, none of it… _nothing_ could mend the void in my heart. The pain, the anger, the longing… it was eternal, and consuming… so _I_ froze it. Though I wasn't trying to freeze it in this manner. This was… an _interesting_ side effect that I had not accounted for the possibility of."

"Oh!" Anna gasps out, as unshed tears slowly begin to trickle over her cheeks. "So… so you… You were… _OH!_ "

Death.

The Snow Queen had tried to—

"Arguably, it was a better option. The pain stopped, as did everything else. My mind has since grown clearer, sharper, and my powers have developed to create more intricate constructions," the sorceress continues, idly tracing a finger around the rim of her teacup as she rests her chin in her other hand, elbow propped on the table. "My ferrets, for one."

Anna blinks, glances down to look at Jen at her feet before looking back to the Snow Queen and the coat of living ferrets draping over her shoulders. She blinks again. "You...You _made_ them?"

"Yes. Do try to keep up, Anna." Again, her host smiles, and again it feels as if she is merely referring to a script of when such behaviors are appropriate. There is no feeling behind the action. There is no warmth. There is no… Nothing. There is nothing.

 _Is that...what I'll come to?_

The redhead smiles for a second and she knows, behind it there lies the same emptiness. It's strange to feel nothing after all these emotions crumbling upon her waves after waves until the Snow Queen was her last chance to stop her heart from bleeding.

And she knows that the Snow Queen smiles… but at the same time, it looks nothing like it. It's a shell. A cover. And it's cold. It's no doubt that Anna finds hers cold too. It's as if the woman in front of her was affecting her in some way. It's not bad, but at the same time, it's not that good either.

But she's curious. How does she live? All alone… cold… and there's nothing that makes her feeling like she's living. _Really living._

She stares, while the Snow Queen tickles the ferret's whiskers who's curled around her shoulder. She's been gazing her long enough and decides to share some small talk. It's gotten unbearably awkward for Anna.

"Have you... ever gone outside?" Suddenly the thought of the Snow Queen staying in a fancy ice castle since… forever, is bothering her. She may be hurt and beyond upset, but she still cares. There's still feelings and warmth inside of her. She doesn't think they're much needed though, but...

Blue eyes flutter, as she turns. She's thinking. "Yes… I have." Not very convincing, Anna thinks.

She fold her arms against her chest. It's risky to send her a challenging look, but it's worth it. "For errands?"

"Oh no, my ferrets do that."

Anna's beginning to think that she hasn't gone beyond what's outside of the ice walls for a long time. At all, perhaps. "Since when have you… gone outside?"

Her eyebrows cross. "What good is there with you asking me these questions?"

She doesn't know. But with that reaction, she pumps her fist as she has gotten her answer. "Some good… some bad, but I risk it. You'll be ending my suffering soon enough so… the sooner the better, correct?"

The blonde tilts her head and lets her ferret scurry away. "You are such an odd person."

"You didn't answer me."

"I don't have to."

"Well, then, I've gotten my answer." She smiles and claps her hands together. "Tell you what, we should get out to the fields today. It's a nice day out! Might as well enjoy it while I'm still alive."

The Snow Queen raises an eyebrow. "You… have a death wish?"

"Well… no… yes… I just thought of this in the last minute. I figured with your skin so pale, you've not gotten far from just taking a few steps away from the castle." She's fidgeting and somehow, her cheeks flush red with embarrassment. It's hot. Strange.

"I don't know, Anna. I'm dangerous." Her blue eyes darken, but she shows no sign of any human emotions.

Anna gets excited instead and stands. "Come on, I think we both need a little sunshine. And we're up in the mountains, I don't think anybody would be up here… unless they're Ice Masters. Now come!" She offers a hand out. The Snow Queen stares at it cautiously and flinches, as if there's no way she could hold someone.

She stands instead. "Alright." If she doesn't do it, Anna will continue pestering her, she realizes.

And Anna sees that realization—the slight slump of her shoulders, the barely audible sigh. The Snow Queen seems so human at times, and... _not_ , at others. Likely due to her frozen heart. Anna's hand falters back to her side, and she bites her lip.

 _Would it be worth it? Acting only out of habit, and losing my ability to feel even the smallest things?_

"Something's on your mind," the sorceress' cool voice interrupts her thoughts, and Anna turns to see that her host has stopped in the doorway, looking back at her. The ferrets are looking as well, and it would have been more unnerving if Anna hadn't already been used to them. She furrows her brow, opening her mouth, but the Snow Queen answers her question before she can even ask.

"You bite your lip when you're deep in thought. Or when you're about to do something foolish."

The words are delivered calmly, in a calculating fashion, and Anna's eye twitches in irritation at the blunt assessment. "Oh? And how would you know that? You haven't been watching me, have you?"

"Of course I have," the witch-queen answers almost immediately in that same tone. "I told you that you intrigued me. A thought occurred to me that perhaps remote observation would yield more curious results, so I—"

"You've _what?!_ "

"Been watching you," the Snow Queen says. One of her hands lifts to brush the underside of a ferret's chin at her collar. It squeaks contentedly, nuzzling the finger she deigned to comfort it with. "Did you think Jen was a decoration? Or perhaps that I am accustomed to letting peasant girls wander about my palace unaccompanied?"

A fuzzy paw prods insistently at Anna's heel, and she distracts herself from the flash of heat rising in her face long enough to reach down and pat Jen on the head. The wide-eyed apology in the ferret's eyes is a lot like the expression her magical mistress _should_ be wearing, and it's hard to speak through a clenched jaw, but Anna manages.

"Sorry," she says, "for assuming that I wasn't being spied on every second of every day."

"Apology accepted," says the Snow Queen.

Anna's mouth drops open. She does nothing but stare for several solid seconds, halfway through scratching Jen's cheek. Several more pass before the ferret chirps in concern. Anna takes a slow breath and pulls Jen's comforting weight into her arms. When she stands up and looks her most gracious host in the eye, she imagines that she doesn't look entirely like someone likely to commit murder.

"Okay." She takes another calming breath, since the first apparently didn't really count. "This?" she asks, gesturing at the space between them. "This is why you need to go outside. So let's… do that."

She stalks off, probably marching in entirely the wrong direction and not caring one bit.

"Similarly, Anna," the Snow Queen's voice calls out, only a step behind, "this is precisely why I invited you to stay."

While Anna has no complaints about the Snow Queen offering her hospitality, a part of her was confused. Is her heart so frozen she really doesn't care what she's doing? And now that she thought about it, maybe the Snow Queen was merely doing all of this for her on a whim? But were there others who wanted the same thing she asked for?

"Um…"

 _Wait...I just realized. I don't even know her name? What do I call her? Does she even have a name aside from being known as "The Snow Queen"?_

"Miss Snow Queen?" Anna asked hoping that a substitution for her lack of knowing her hostess's name didn't sound stupid coming out of her mouth.

The Snow Queen merely nods at Anna's embarrassment before formally introducing herself.

"It's fine, just call me Elsa."

 _Elsa...so that's her name._

Anna quickly breaks out of her momentary trance before continuing with what she wanted to ask.

"Elsa? Have you gotten visitors who also wanted their heart frozen...like I do?"

Elsa thinks for a moment as the two begin walking towards the castle entrance. If she had to be honest, all of her visitors were quite forgettable, to say the the least, Almost all of them were the same. They feared her and wanted to kill her. It was rather predictable, as everything else is in her castle of isolation.

"No...to be honest, you're the first," she responds.

"The first who asked to freeze their heart? Well...that's probably not surprising," Anna says with slight bitterness in her tone, "I guess everyone else is lucky enough not to deal with such heavy emotions."

"From what I remember, love is a difficult emotion," Elsa—Anna has yet to grow used to the name—says, tapping a finger to her chin. "It is not so much luck—or lack thereof, in your case—but rather...I suppose it would be more accurate to say that everyone else simply found a way to move on. Your current path just so happens to be freezing your heart to stop the pain."

For some reason, that doesn't exactly make Anna feel any better. It simply makes her feel weak for not owning up to her emotions and moving on like a normal person would.

Jen shifts in her arms, nuzzles against her, and for a moment, Anna forgets about the constant ache in her heart and the infuriating words of her frosty host. Her lips curve into a smile, and a finger gently scratches under the ferret's chin, earning a pleased chitter.

For several seconds, Anna is distracted by the gentle titter of her furry companion. The soft, snowy pelt and nuzzling lulls her into a sense of tranquility.

"You know this isn't the way outside correct?"

Anna stops halfway around a corner. Elsa stands a few paces behind, watching her with an almost amused look. Almost.

Anna flushes. "Well, I don't know all the ins and outs of your palace."

Elsa smirks and goosebumps rise along Anna's arms. She turns on her heel and says, "It's a wonder you made it up my mountain without getting lost."

Anna bites her tongue to refrain from saying she had. She opts to continue petting Jen as she follows Elsa through the castle. They go back and then down, passing walls of glittering ice. When the familiar double doors come into view, Anna smiles and hurries ahead.

They creak and groan and suddenly she sees the sunlight again.

Blinking furiously to adjust to the sudden brightness of the outside world, it takes a few moments before she can see the wintery landscape that greets her. The snow-capped mountain range extends on both sides with the valley in the middle of her field of vision. She could see the town in the distance—almost achingly small. The journey up the mountain hadn't been...short, after all.

Elsa takes a few steps outside the door with Anna in tow.

 _Just how long did it take to get up here? Let's see three...four, no five days. Maybe longer?_ Anna's musing is interrupted by the silky voice of a certain Snow Queen.

"Well, here we are," the other woman gestures to the outer world uninterestedly, "Outside."

Anna rolls her eyes and suppresses a sigh. "This isn't even _close_ to being outside Elsa, and you know it."

"Perhaps."

Elsa steps further out into the snow, effortlessly gliding over it while Anna struggles to get one foot in front of the other. Apparently, more snow has accumulated since last time. Not that it's a problem to the sorceress pausing to glance back at her with an arched brow.

What she does know is that the amount of snow accumulating depends on Elsa's emotions… if she had any. With someone that doesn't have much emotions, Anna finds it quite easy figuring out her feelings.

Anna takes a deep breath of the cold air and exhales warm steam through her mouth. "Gods this is… it's pretty…" she says. There's no words that could describe the perfect view. She hasn't been paying much attention to the view from the mountain to afar, when she first arrived—she was too busy protecting herself from the blasting wind and the snow storms and in hopes that she wouldn't get lost… which in fact, she did. Several times.

But she takes a closer look, stepping over to the foot inch snow. The sky's beautiful, as she looks up, finding shades of purple to pink and stars shining brightly to match. And the white snow below her reflects it.

She leans forward to the side cautiously. It's too high up here. The trees below her look like ants, she realizes.

"Be careful, I most certainly don't want you slipping over the side."

What a strange statement. Ironic, as a matter of fact.

Anna smiles when she hears Elsa striding up behind her. "I doubt you'd really stress over whether I do take a plunge or not."

Again that empty expression shows nothing. But she feels like Elsa would smirk at this point.

Thankfully, the sorceress says nothing blunt or calculated like she's wont to do, and merely gazes out over the sprawling landscape with her. Anna finds her gaze drawn to her hometown below, and her heart constricts. Somewhere, down there...Hans would still be walking around. No doubt regaling his friends about how he so thoroughly played her for a lovestruck fool…

But down there is the smithy, too. And despite her clumsiness, despite the fact that she's still only a shophand for now, it...it's home. The warmth of the forge, the melodic sounds of hammer against metal… A wistful smile curls onto her lips and she idly scratches under Jen's chin again.

 _I wonder if anyone noticed I've been gone? Will they ever send out a search party?_

"Tell me about yourself," Elsa's voice tugs her out of her thoughts, and the redhead turns to stare at her host, angling her head in a way that asks, "Why?"

"You have been staring at the town over there for quite some time. I assume that is your home?" the blonde asks, pointing a finger at the town in question. "You mentioned you had work. What is it that you... _do_ exactly?"

Anna stays quiet to reminisce for a moment. Jen looks up at her with what she swears is worry shining in her dark eyes and gives her chin the smallest little nuzzle of encouragement. It brings back a tiny smile to Anna's face and gives her just what she needs to answer Elsa's question.

"I worked as a smith's hand," she says softly, "Helped around the shop, talked to some of the customers who wandered in... I was clumsy and foolish but the blacksmith...he was gruff sure but he treated me well." She feels a burn against the back of her eyes and fights hard to keep the tears back. She never realized just how much she missed the older man. He would work her to the bone—snapping at her all the while—but at the end of the day, he would tenderly treat her blisters and burns and sit with her for a hard earned meal, talking little but listening to her rambles with an attentiveness few ever bothered to grant her.

However during her courtship with Hans, he became distant and sullen. He no longer treated her injuries or sat with her for dinner, though he would still leave her a warm plate as it was a part of their agreement when he hired her. Anna's certain the man had grown tired of her at that point and it only added to the ache of Hans betrayal and cemented her thought that no one truly cared.

She doesn't realize how lost in thought she had become until she feels a cold hand on her shoulder combined with a few tentative licks from Jen against her chin. She glances back to see Elsa's expressionless gaze fixed on her intently.

"Do you wish to go back?" the blonde asks, her voice flat as usual.

Anna smiles sadly at the idea and shakes her head. "There won't be anyone waiting for me, anyway. After I freeze my heart...I'll probably go find another town to live in. Find work, find food, find a place to stay…"

Elsa releases her shoulder, turning her empty eyes back to the town below. "That would only incur unnecessary expenses and effort. You will not feel anything, should you return. I do not understand why you would need to change location if the pain no longer troubles you. They will be but mere faces to you—occupying the same space, but they will no longer have any meaning."

 _That...That doesn't sound right._ "I'd still have my memories," Anna insists, furrowing her brow, and Elsa sighs. The ferrets composing her coat shift a little, restless.

"Yes, you will have memories. But tell me, Anna...what use are memories if they cannot invoke any feeling from them?"

Her throat tightens at the question, and the stinging in her eyes grows in strength. The blacksmith may not care for her anymore, but...to treat him so callously?

"I…"

Anna's eyes wander, searching for something, anything, to help form proper words, to help organize her thoughts into something more than just "No, that's not what I meant"...when her gaze lands on a cave a little ways from them. "Hey...what's in there?" she asks instead, secretly glad for the distraction. Jen shifts in her arms, nose twitching in the chilly air, and she turns her furry head towards her creator.

Under both of their gazes, Elsa turns her eyes towards the cave as well. She smiles once more in that scripted way, and indicates for Anna to follow as they make their way over. The snow is thicker around here, and Anna stumbles more than once. Thankfully, Elsa is there to lend a hand and keep her from falling face-first into the ground. Jen, however, decides to leap from her arms and make the walk herself, given how rough her ride has been so far.

Anna grumbles to herself as she holds onto the Snow Queen, feeling especially helpless when the small ferret is able to scurry through the snow faster than the both of them. She thinks Elsa would be able to walk faster too—as if she'd be sliding gracefully along a platform of ice. "Stupid snow," she murmurs to herself.

Elsa gives her a long gaze and Anna knows she'd said the wrong thing. Especially in front of the Queen of Ice.

Embarrassed, she covers her mouth. "I-I mean, haha, the snow's so beautiful!" It's cold but she feels like she's sweating at the burning stare of her blue eyes.

Fortunately, it doesn't last long. They arrive in front of the cave; dark but it looks pretty cozy, with the redhead's jaw on the ground. It's like she's never seen one before. Well, at least never one that's ten times bigger than her.

The ferret's just curled up in front of them as she's been waiting for a while.

"Whoa… I've never seen a cave this big…" she breathes. She feels Elsa's hand letting go of her and for some reason, it disappointed her. For a woman like her, her hand is especially warm.

She watches the woman walk towards the cave, the ferret following behind. By her posture, Anna knows, there's something that's making her feel proud. Even if it's not shown directly. "I… had some decent time in this cave when I first arrived here."

Anna blinks and follows her in, and stops when she does. "Memories…?"

Elsa gives her an empty smile, turning to her. "I trained in here. Alone."

"Oh. Well, uh… what did you do?"

She shrugs. "Everything and anything. I used my time here to control my powers… my aim… to create life." She waves her hand, and a glow of blue light glides around her fingers like water. She snaps her fingers, and slowly three little ice sparrows fly out from the cave not before turning back to Elsa for permission. She nods and immediately, they leave with soft chirps echoing through the cave.

Anna's not shocked. She finds her powers beautiful.

"And I'm called a monster for this."

That angers Anna greatly.

"Elsa, that's not the work of a monster—those were...those were beautiful!"

Her raised voice, unfortunately, disturbs some of the icicles hanging from the roof of the cave.

A loud crack of splitting ice from overhead has Anna freezing in place and she chances a nervous glance upwards towards the ceiling. One of the largest ones closest to the entrance, jagged and wickedly sharp, has a large split close to the base and looks precariously close to coming loose. Anna follows it's line of collision with her gaze and felt her whole body go numb with terror at the tiny ferret that has stopped directly underneath it in order to groom her fur.

"Jen," Anna hisses in terror. Beside her, Elsa doesn't even seemed fazed at all by the situation. The ferret ignores the call, all of her attention on getting a particular rough patch of fur to settle on her leg and Anna risks another glance upwards. "Elsa! Do something!" She tried to keep her voice as quiet as possible.

"Why?" Elsa asks and Anna finds the lack of _anything_ in her voice ominous in her panicked state.

"Why? Why!?" Anna feels anger ignite in her chest. "Jen is about to be skewered and you ask me why?"

"She'll be fine," Elsa dismisses with a careless wave of her hand. Another crack and an unwilling whimper escapes Anna as she notices the icicle now just barely hanging onto the ceiling. Her body tenses, torn between throttling Elsa for her lack of empathy and lunging towards Jen.

The icicle snaps and, to Anna, it falls in slow motion—without another thought, she dives toward the ferret and she's just close enough to wrap her entire body around Jen's much smaller one and brace for the impact.

But the impact never comes. The split second where her death is right there just never comes. She had been ready to accept it.

Anna's still hugging the ferret, hearing it chirp loudly before it squirms out of her tight hold. She blinks, and her heart nearly stops when she open her eyes to see the sharp edge of the icicle just an inch away from her head.

She gasps.

"You should really listen when I say something."

* * *

Her eyes immediately turns to the Snow Queen who has her arm outstretched. The same glowing blue light that flows around her hand spreads, brightening the dark space.

"Y-You…"

"I control ice and snow, Anna, it shouldn't be so surprising." Elsa tilts her head and lets Jen curl around her shoulder. "Now are you just going to stay under there, or am I going to have to move... you… too…" The woman blinks as she sees the look in Anna's eyes, tears forming in her big teal eyes with her face flushed.

"Oh god… you saved me…" Anna cries.

Elsa doesn't know why she's feeling this way… a certain way… it's not unpleasant, but it is quite unfamiliar. She's still, but nothing seems to have crossed her mind as of why her heart seems to have been beating a little faster. And it's… it's warm—

 _I love you, Elsa._

She suddenly makes a tight fist and it brings the icicle into little pieces of ice.

It rains down on Anna, but she doesn't care. She sits there, weeping like a child and somehow… it reminds her of someone else. Her heart beats faster, and something… something seems to have caught in her throat. She hasn't eaten anything wrong, she thinks. And she never gets sick. This is strange.

And fearing this… whatever this is, she backs away, hands clenched together on her chest. She's breathing rapidly, her heart suddenly aching, and God, it hurts so bad. Her vision blurs, but she doesn't know why. And she doesn't know… doesn't know why Anna looks like the woman she once loved.

"My love… is that you…?"

Ice creeps out from under her and melts in equal measure, dense fog building around her and threatening to fill the entire cave, blocking out the very sight of—Anna. Of the peasant girl with a broken heart who had the wisdom to know exactly how far away to run from that pain. Who didn't have the slightest idea how much further that tactic would break her.

Elsa closes her eyes, sensation far too close to heat leaking into them. Her arms tighten around her middle, and she can't for the life of her remember when they got there. Air sweeps into her lungs too quickly and shallowly, but nothing stands out so much as the _hurt_.

She wanted it to end, once.

She remembers that very plainly, in a way she hasn't in ages, in the way she just finished explaining Anna would no longer be able to when she fulfilled their bargain.

She still wants it to end.

Her ice comes back to her, slowly ebbing away from Anna, from Jen, and molding itself back where it belongs. Inside of her, where no one has to suffer because of it. The fangs of the heat and pain retract, and when she opens her eyes, she sees Anna.

 _Anna_. No one else.

She doesn't care.

And just like that, she can breathe again.

"Why did you do that?" she finally asks of the still-weeping girl before her. As always, her behavior is...strange. Illogical.

The ice in her chest pulsates ever so slightly, as if in approval of the assessment. She takes another breath.

"Why?" Anna answers with a question of her own, her teary face contorting into one of unmistakable anger. "You ask me _why_ I wanted to save a helpless creature from certain death?"

"I could have easily fixed Jen from impalement," Elsa returns smoothly, raising a hand up to lightly scratch the ferret in question. "You should have just stood by and let—"

" _Don't touch her!"_

The shout gives her pause with its heated rage, and she fixes her chilly gaze on the burning teal before her. Fire and ice. That's what they are in this moment—opposing forces over something as trivial as the life of a ferret born of her powers. A ferret she could just as easily bring back to life and replace.

Elsa's voice is quiet when next she speaks. "Excuse me?"

"You are _**not**_ allowed to touch Jen after what you just said," Anna all but snarls at her, rising to her feet on trembling legs. Her hands are shaking.

Elsa still doesn't understand, watching the woman wipe the melted ice—even the tears—off herself. She tilts her head on one side, feeling the little animal rubbing her head on her. "I don't understand, why can't I touch her?"

Anna stretches her hand out. "Give. Her. To. Me."

Her brows furrowed. "You do understand that Jen… she's just another creature that I've made. Out of ice and snow."

"It doesn't matter!" Her voice echoes through the cave, the icicles on top of them shaking a bit, but not enough to shatter. "What you said, is… is… inhumane! You're a… a…"

The Snow Queen knows exactly what she's going to say. She waits for her to say the one word, but it never came. Instead, she sees Anna trembling as she strides towards her slowly, arms wrapped around her own chest. She can't see what's going on on her face, as she has her head down and her hair covering any emotions, but somehow, it leaves her throbbing with… some sort of emotion.

"I know…" She whispers. "I know you have heart. I know you don't mean to say that 'it doesn't matter'. Please tell me, you've felt something when you said that… just tell me you're not the monster, other people know you as!" She holds Elsa's hand and it's ice cold.

Elsa's silent, blank blue eyes looking down at their intertwined fingers. "Anna, Jen is made out of ice and snow."

Anna's trembling and cursing below her breath, but she keeps her head down. "Don't say that… She's my friend. Hey, you backed away earlier… you've must've felt something… like… like something triggered you and it made you feel a certain way." Elsa's hand twitches and she's sure Anna felt it. She sees her pausing and she knows, Anna's eyes are on her fingers. "You whispered something… 'My love, is that you?' Did I trigger you? Did I remind you of her?"

Her heart pounds harder again, just for a second, as if her words are triggers. But she remains silent. Cold.

Anna frowns, shaking her head, and Elsa feels a very faint sting of disappointment when she pulls her hands away.

"I know you have a heart."

Elsa tilts her head and once again, as if a needle has made a slight prick, her heart begins to hurt. "I…" She's speechless when Anna looks up to her, eyebrows furrow in anger and her cheeks are flushed bright red. "I don't have one."

Anna clicked her tongue and grabs her arm—not even caring what the queen would even do to her—pulling her forward. "Stop lying!" The cave roars alongside her but she doesn't care. "Don't lie to me! I saw how you looked at me before! What the hell do you call that?!"

The Snow Queen doesn't move. She's speechless at seeing someone like her yelling.

"You… You felt something."

"I did… but—"

"Then why would you leave Jen to… to… meet her own death…?" Anna holds her arm, tightly. "Why?!"

Elsa sighs. "I don't have to say it again, do I?"

"Even if she was created by you, she's still an animal! An animal that breathes the same air as us!"

"Air is not essential to Jen's functions," Elsa explains, as if lecturing a child, and she sees at once that it is yet another wrong move. Anna's features contort once more into one of fury, and she releases the blonde's arm in obvious disgust.

"Maybe I was wrong," her guest says, "Maybe I imagined that whole...thing. Thaw. Whatever it was with you."

Elsa opens her mouth to speak, to explain herself better, when Jen scurries down her shoulder, leaping towards Anna. The girl, despite surprise overtaking her angry visage, manages to catch the ferret in her arms, where it trembles against her and burrows into her chest. Elsa watches as teal eyes soften at the creature in her arms, and Anna buries her face against Jen's snowy fur.

She doesn't understand this. Not only Anna's erratic behavior, but Jen's.

The snow ferret is a creation born through her powers. Its sentience is limited, as is that of all her creatures. They are little more than an extension of her will, a dull spark of creative intent giving them a passable imitation of life. She's their creator. There is no part of them that she did not implant herself.

And yet. There is no reason for Jen to be trembling. Cold is no object to a body made from it. From there, the only logical conclusion is built on no logic at all.

By all appearances, Jen is having an emotional response.

Elsa secures her arms benignly around her waist. She ignores the wrinkles her clenched hands cut through the fabric, and observes her two wayward experiments. Her hollow pulse aches in complaint.

Less than a week with the peasant girl, and Jen's behavior is nearly indistinguishable from a living creature's. That explains, somewhat, why Anna is so insistent on treating her like one. She hardly knows any better. An explanation for why that would have an effect on Jen remains to be found. There is nothing there. No breath, no blood, no bone, no—

Her nails dig into her dress, and her untainted creations squirm against her collar. A heartbeat, as clear and solid as the icicle Anna saw fit to defend an empty construct from, sounds in her chest. Beyond her reach, Jen continues to shake in the girl's arms.

In only five days.

It is a point of curiosity, nothing else, when she ponders if anything will remain of them after the next nine.

* * *

Anna keeps Jen close to her as they walk back. The ferret nuzzles against her, fur almost ticklish on her skin, and her hold tightens ever so slightly. Protectively.

There is no way she's ever going to let Jen near Elsa again. To hell with the fact that she created Jen in the first place!

Bile rises up her throat at the memory of what happened in the cave. If freezing her heart means becoming like Elsa back there—becoming someone who'd stand by and _allow_ another to get hurt and to see no wrong in doing so—then...then…

 _It's not worth it,_ Anna thinks as her steps grow heavier in the snow, almost stomping. _I'd never do something like that even with the pain I'm feeling. It's not right, and if freezing my heart means I'll become that person… Then it's not worth it._

The only question now is...what becomes of their bargain?

Anna abruptly stops in the snow, previous resentment forgotten, as her heart begins to sink at the dilemma she has now been presented with.

 _I can't very well blurt out to Elsa, 'Oh hey thanks for everything, but I don't think this whole freezing my heart business is going to work_ — _especially, after that heartless display back at the cave'. I don't think that would pan out very well._ Anna bites her lip and tries her best not to panic because really, should she retract her agreement with Elsa, who knows what the sorceress is capable of...

A dark vision flashes before her eyes of Elsa using her magic in a horrific way.

 _I'm sure she's killed people, I think… but would she really kill m_ —Furiously shaking her head to rid the start of unsettling thoughts, she peers down at a peaceful Jen in her arms. Anna gives a small smile and focuses on the warmth from the ferret. She is quite frightened at the turn of events, but she just has to be brave and figure it out if she wants to get out of this unscathed.

"I'll just have to be smart about it," Anna says, tucking the ferret even closer to her.

"Be smart about what exactly?"

She takes a deep breath. "About whether I really should get my heart frozen… by someone as cold as you."

A flurry of snow whisks by her ear. "You'll find that my affinity for the temperature is an unfortunate prerequisite."

Anna stiffens. It's far too easy to imagine the harmless snowflakes turning to razor-bladed icicles. She's not made of magic. Any gaping holes that show up in her will be there to stay. Not that she has any confidence that the Snow Queen would heal her even if she could. If she can't find compassion for a sweetheart like Jen, how could she possibly feel it for Anna?

Why, Anna wonders, a flash of hurt to the thought, did Elsa have to be like this? Why couldn't she just be… someone else? Anyone else. Someone who cared. Someone—

 _Who didn't have a frozen heart?_

"While you are free to leave as you wish...my intrigue has merely grown," Elsa says as a chilly wind sweeps past them. Anna isn't sure if it's from the blonde, or just fortunate timing on the mountain's part, but…it certainly leaves a chill down her spine at the thought of her host killing her for her insolence. Surely she's crossed a line?

"There are only nine days left to our agreement," the sorceress continues amidst Anna's internal panic, "Having come this far, both in distance and time...It would be a shame to have such a premature departure, no?"

Anna cuddles Jen closer to her chest and frowns in confusion. "What reason do I have to stay?" she asks, her voice soft enough that she almost wonders if it was being carried away by the chilly winds before the words reach the other woman. The piercing look Elsa gives her quells that thought in an instant.

"No reason, I suppose," Elsa answers coolly. "Just thought it would be a shame...a lot can happen in nine days and you've done a fair job at keeping me...entertained, so to speak. I wouldn't be against you staying...even if you don't wish for your heart to be frozen in the end." She spares Jen a glance. "Besides, I'm afraid you won't be able to take her with you if that's what you have planned. She's tied to me, thus she can't get too far without fading back into the snow she's made from…"

Jen purrs in agreement, and Anna frowns. "Can't you...do something about that?"

"Hmm...an interesting thought. I've never had reason to attempt it before, as they wouldn't, say, travel as far as your town." Elsa quickens her pace, taking the lead back to the ice palace looming just ahead. "It would certainly cause a great amount of strength, if my earlier attempts at even _forming_ life were of any indication. Ultimately, it wouldn't be feasible."

Anna's shoulders hunch to her ears. _So it's either leaving Jen to this...this_ witch's _mercy...or staying to make sure something like this won't happen again._

She lets out a defeated sigh and follows Elsa's path back to the ice castle.

 _Even if I do leave, where would I go? It's not like I have an actual home to return to with people waiting for me…_ Anna wipes at her eyes as a wave of sadness washes over her.

Jen nuzzles closer, and it's a small—but no less comforting—thought that at least there is _someone_ who didn't mind being around her… Those beady eyes blink up at her, awash with sympathy and affection, and Anna can't help but wonder if that's where Elsa's emotions are instead. Transferred to her creations since they had no place in herself.

But it's a silly thought. A thought interrupted by the sorceress speaking up with, "Sleep on your decision tonight. And let me know in the morning which path you will take."

Anna swallows past the bitterness settling on her tongue, and nods. "A-Alright," she hastily says after realizing that the Snow Queen wouldn't be able to see her nod, as the blonde hasn't turned her head once since taking the lead. She's almost glad that's the case—looking into those empty, unfeeling eyes isn't something she needs right now.

Most of the day hasn't been easy. It's quiet when they walked back to the castle, and even then, no words were exchanged.

Jen has been especially happy. Maybe it's out of pity for Anna, but whatever the little creature is doing, it's putting a smile on her face, and it's lifting her heavy heart. She doesn't mind it at all and she knows they both need a little pitying.

* * *

Later in the ice castle's parlor, Anna giggles when Jen chases her tail in a tight circle, nearly tripping over her own paws. The ferret chirrups playfully before suddenly launching at her, and Anna catches her furry friend with ease, accustomed to her antics by now. A smile curves onto her lips, only to die at the sight of Elsa standing in the doorway, eyes coolly locking onto hers. The other ferrets are gone for now, leaving her shoulders bare—a small blessing, perhaps. Just knowing those ferrets were still around her 'gracious' host…

Anna fights to keep her blood from boiling. "Yes?"

"There is food in the dining hall, should you wish to eat." And before Anna can refuse: "I would advise against skipping it. You will need the nourishment regardless of what you will choose."

"I don't—"

Her stomach growls as if on cue, and Anna curses quietly under her breath. Jen offers an encouraging lick, eyes pleading for her to take care of herself regardless of her disagreements with the Snow Queen. The ferret opens her mouth, revealing a set of tiny teeth, and nudges Anna with her head.

She sighs.

 _Well, if Jen wants me to eat, then I can't argue with that..._

"I will leave you be for the night," Her melodious voice sends a chill down Anna's spine, claiming her attention once more. "Eat and then rest for now. I will talk to you tomorrow about your decision." With a slight gesture, Elsa strides down the hallway and out of Anna's sight.

Anna shudders and nuzzles her face against Jen's fur; the tiny mammal licking her face gently in return. She just wants to cuddle with Jen and think.

"We'll make it a quick supper, alright?" she says to her friend, features growing stern...only for it to fall when Jen licks her nose. A giggle escapes from her lips, and she thanks the gods that at least one good thing has come about from this whole situation.

It's almost baffling that a creature as nice and sweet and warm and thoughtful as Jen could come from someone like Elsa...

"...unless that's what she was like before…?" Anna murmurs to herself later in her room, belly full of warm food. She's already tucked under the covers of her bed, with Jen curled against her chest and purring in contentment as she runs her fingers through that soft fur.

It's an errant thought—one that decides to stand out amidst the others clamoring in her head. After all, the Snow Queen had been _someone_ before freezing her own heart… A different person altogether, perhaps.

"Do you know anything?" she asks of her furry companion, and Jen merely tilts her head, tiny ears twitching. Anna sighs. "Of course not. You were probably created after that..."

Jen offers an apologetic nuzzle in response, and Anna's heart twists at the unfairness of it all. If only the ferret could come with her; her only friend throughout this ordeal. Around Jen, thoughts of Hans and her loneliness back in town are pushed to the side, almost forgotten in the wake of the ferret's affection. Her heart hurts less so long as she's around—the pain a subtle ache instead of consuming her being.

To think that a ferret would be the only one to care for her in this world…

"What do you think I should do?" Anna asks, biting her bottom lip. "Should I stay? Should I go? I don't...want to leave you with her. Or your fellow ferrets. For all I know, she might just let them all die tomorrow. Or the next day, or the day after that."

Jen merely stares at her. The silence around the two remains as Anna thinks she can get an answer from her furry friend.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Anna sighs, "it's almost like you want me to figure it out myself…"

Jen simply purrs in response as she continues to ponder on the thought. Maybe she could think about the decision tomorrow? But then that would be too late, and who knows how long it would take her make her final decision, at least without the thought of Elsa kicking her out of her castle.

 _Then again, there really isn't much of a place for me to go back to. And as much as I don't like the idea of sticking around with the Snow Queen, Jen probably needs me._

At that point, Anna decides she may as well make the castle her home for the next nine days.

She sighs. "Well… I guess that would be nine days of taking care and protecting you."

It's obvious she can't leave Jen alone with that cold…woman. Anna doesn't have the guts to call her a monster. She knows Elsa doesn't mean any harm. She bites on her lip as she watches the ferret lick herself clean. A hand runs down the soft, cold—weirdly, warm—coat that Jen has.

"Well… at least if I stay, I get to try and… thaw her heart right?"

Jen purrs.

She laughs. "I know, I know… but I know what I saw when we were in the cave… she had those… eyes." Her eyebrows scrunch. Those eyes weren't cold… but they weren't warm and loving either. They glistened with heartbreak, and overflowing despair.

Oh, Anna knows that look, alright. Once upon a time, she looked exactly how Elsa had stared at her.

* * *

 **Our contributors for Part 2:** metaphoricalbutton/Immi, The Wandering Quill, pankite, iamrottingunman, nopantsparade/Issandri, winterssummerallthefunner, a-brown-turtle, and talkstopaintings


	3. Part 3

**PART 3**

* * *

"Tell me, Anna...what have you decided?"

"I'm staying." Anna answers the older woman, a feeling of deja vu washes over her as she takes note of the Snow Queen perched on her throne like she had been when she first arrived. Elsa's lips curl upwards in a smile and Anna sees the barest hint of...something come to her eyes before it vanishes.

"I'm glad to hear that," Elsa responds and her answer sounds sincere at least.

Perhaps Anna didn't exactly think this through. While she's fine with staying with Elsa for the next nine days, she has no idea what she would be doing or how she would go about living in the middle of almost nowhere. Regardless, at least she could keep Jen safe.

"And if you're thinking about what you should do as you remain here, you don't need to worry," Elsa continues, "you are free to do whatever you wish in this castle and food will always be available, so you needn't worry about starving, either."

Anna only stares as the sorceress keeps speaking.

"I know you had second thoughts, thinking I would possibly starve you or keep you prisoner...know that, I'm not like that," she finishes.

 _Was that sadness in her voice?_

Anna shakes her head to respond, "Yes."

"Okay." She smiles, but it's small. Anna barely notices it. "Well, I'm sure you're famished… we should dine."

Anna's stomach growls in response, and her cheeks flare red with embarrassment. She wants to say something, but Elsa doesn't let her as she stands from her throne and makes her way through the icy halls. The sky's getting a bit dark, but the ice have given light to them.

The ferret rubs her head on Anna's cheek and purrs.

She giggles and it begins to fade when she watches Elsa's back disappear from her view. Anna is sure that Elsa cares… deep down in her empty heart. Elsa's taking care of her—and while Anna thinks that… it's not the best care in the world, she realizes there's still something warm. Maybe just a spark of light, but it's barely visible.

It doesn't matter. Not while Elsa is still frozen from any emotions.

"Hey, do you think she'll be as warm as you, Jen?"

She nods, and it's impossible not to grin until her cheeks hurt with those dark eyes looking up at her. There's hope. She doesn't want to hold onto it long, knowing that it'll only let them both down if nothing is changed. But things are changing. Just not in the pace where Anna wants it to be going.

Anna sighs. "Let's hope she'll eventually come to her senses."

Elsa's already in the dining table when Anna arrives. It's filled with food and Elsa's preparing tea for the both of them.

And while Anna stands still, and getting all mesmerized by the elegancy of the woman, Elsa notices her. She sends a small smile… and it's showing some light. It's not much, but it's a start. And it's getting Anna's heart to start pounding.

"Breakfast is served, Anna."

The heart drops when she hears the cold voice.

Jen chirps into her ear, only to get her to realize she'd been standing in the same spot without blinking.

"O-Oh, right." With a clear of her throat, Anna comes to the table and sits across from the Queen.

"Would you… prefer that I leave?"

Anna's blinking. "W-What?"

"You don't seem comfortable with me being around you… or are you still furious for my previous actions?"

"Of course I'm—" Anna pauses to take a deep breath, trying to rein in her emotions as Elsa's cold words from the previous day ring in her ears. "I'm still upset with you, yes, but I'm not...going to be rude about it. You have to eat too, don't you?"

The Snow Queen's head dips into a nod. "Indeed."

"So you can...stay." She gestures vaguely at her host to remain seated. A frown curls onto Anna's face. "But I'm not going to talk to you!"

Another nod, followed by a chuckle as empty as the eyes sweeping down to the food prepared. "Understandable. You seem like the...fiery sort, so of course it would take more than a day for your flames to recede."

 _Hmph. If only my flames could melt you—maybe then you wouldn't go around allowing poor creatures to be killed…_

Breakfast passes in silence, broken only by the sound of their forks and knives scraping against the plates as they ate, as well as Anna's loud chewing. Jen idly pads around the table, sniffing at the occasional dish but not tasting anything. She probably doesn't even need to eat.

Jen chitters before leaping down from the table, landing nimbly on the floor and scurrying over to nuzzle her head against Anna's ankle. Anna smiles at the gesture, reaching a hand down to lightly scratch at the ferret's head. Jen purrs, her tail brushing against the redhead's leg, and she bounds away, leaving the dining room.

 _What the—?_

With Anna's buffer between her and Elsa gone, the familiar ball of awkwardness and discomfort settles in the pit of her stomach. Across from her, the Snow Queen arches a brow, as if expecting something, and Anna's cheeks heat at having been read so easily. With the unspoken permission, she hastily gobbles up the rest of her breakfast and leaves the room as well without a backward glance.

"Jen?" she calls as she wanders down the hallways of the icy fortress. "Jen, where'd you go?"

A faint chitter reaches her ears, and Anna increases her pace, keeping her ears open for that familiar sound. The trail leads her to the library, where she spots Jen playing with a few of the other ferrets. The small creatures run and jump and climb all over the furniture and shelves of the room, but pause when they notice her standing in the doorway. With those pairs of beady eyes staring at her, tails idly swishing, Anna gives a nervous laugh and raises a hand in an awkward wave.

"Hi."

Jen chitters again, scurrying over to run circles around Anna's feet, and the nervousness passes. She steps further into the room, careful not to accidentally crush her small friend, and the other ferrets tentatively approach her, heads tilting curiously.

Anna smiles as one of them comes even closer, raising itself on its hind paws so it almost looks like it's standing. She crouches down so she's almost at eye level with it, and extends a hand.

Her smile grows when it nudges its head against her palm.

* * *

Something is wrong. Elsa can feel it.

It has been three days since Anna's decision to stay—leaving six more days left—and something is...changing. Sitting at a small table on her balcony for afternoon tea, overlooking the surrounding land, Elsa places a hand against her chest with a frown.

The cold is...leaking. Somehow. And the ends of those leaks seem to be vanishing like mist. Evaporating under the warmth of a sun. No matter how tightly she brings in and compacts the frost, the cold, the ice that surrounds her heart...it's still...still…

Chipping.

 _Thawing_.

"Jen, slow down!" a voice interrupts her examination, and Elsa turns her head to see Anna down below, playing with the ferrets in front of the ice palace.

"Oh, come on! Lee, not you too!" the girl exclaims as the ferret in question joins Jen in an impromptu race in the snow. A giggle drifts up to Elsa's balcony as a few of her other creations launch themselves into Anna's arms, nearly causing her to trip in trying to catch them. "Jon, I can't always catch you and Dina at the same time!"

She falls anyway, laughing all the while.

And with this scene playing out before her, Elsa narrows her eyes, tapping a finger to her chin in thought. A theory forms in her mind as pieces begin slotting into place. She continues to observe, the frown on her lips deepening as Lee and the others chitter happily, piling on top of the giggling redhead.

Happily.

 _So they've changed too...just like Jen that day._ Elsa sighs as the theory in her head grows surer and surer, leaning back in her seat and turning her gaze away from the scene below. She picks up her cup of tea, lifting it to her lips for a sip.

 _Anna is changing them, and they in turn are changing me through our link. However faint of a link it is._

Elsa was right—Anna is most certainly intriguing. To counter her magic in this way...how is it possible? A frozen heart cannot be undone, yet this simple peasant girl somehow managed to indirectly chip away at her ice by...by what? Playing? Mere play that anyone could have done?

"No, no...it has to be something more than that," she mutters, setting the teacup down with a firm 'clink'. "But what? If I can find out _what_ , I can put a stop to it."

This...strangeness won't thaw her heart completely if left alone, but the lack of control over the state of her heart is...bothersome.

"I suppose...I'll have to see this for myself."

Jen pounces atop Anna's head, and the laughter and chittering echoes merrily against the icy walls of her palace. From her vantage point above them, Elsa can still see the affectionate nibble her wayward creation gives the girl's cheek. The comforting chill in her chest dulls. Again. The sight of a pink tongue lapping at Anna's face increases the sensation.

 _Such_ an intriguing girl.

* * *

It feels like it's been a lifetime since she's had this much fun.

Jen's fuzz tickles Anna's chin, and she runs both of her hands down the furry ferret's spine while she wriggles in delight. Playtime has come to a very, very definitive end, and now it's all Anna can do to collapse in the snow and stare up at the sky, the cuddly paws of a dozen snowy ferrets nestling up next to her.

 _This is...nice._

She closes her eyes in contentment, and the ache in her heart is little more than a distant memory. Thinking of Hans' cruel words…they don't hurt as much anymore. Anna has found love—she's found it in the form of Jen and the other ferrets. And they love her just the way she is, clumsiness and all. With every purr, every nudge for her to pet them or play with them, she can feel their love.

"You will catch your death if you fall asleep out here."

Ah. Her loveless host.

"I wasn't going to fall asleep," Anna says as she opens her eyes, sitting up. Clumps of snow still cling to her hair, and she shakes her head, sending them flying. She turns her gaze in the direction of Elsa's voice and sees the Snow Queen joining them, stepping off of a pillar of snow that had served as a platform from…

"Where did _you_ come from?"

The blonde points upward, and Anna lifts her gaze to see a balcony on the ice palace's top floor. _Is that where her room is?_

"Yes, that is where I sleep. Even one such as myself needs a bed for rest," Elsa answers, and Anna frowns at having spoken her thoughts aloud. But with four ferrets still cuddled against her, she could be forgiven for lowering her guard, right?

Elsa's gaze is still fixed on her, and she sees _something_ flicker in those frozen pools. Jen and the others scramble off of her as Anna pushes herself to her feet, rising on shaky legs. She stumbles forward, her body still tired from all of the playing around, and a pair of arms catch her before she can fall on her face.

"Thanks," Anna mumbles, the tips of her ears growing hot in embarrassment at what she is about to ask. "Listen, I...I'm a bit tired so—"

"Of course. Say no more," the Snow Queen says with a nod, and Anna nearly sighs in relief at being allowed to lean on Elsa for support—

Anna shrieks as the snow rises up to toss her into the air, landing her in Elsa's arms, bridal-style. "Wh-What the hell?!" she shouts, trying to struggle, but her exhaustion only allows her to weakly flail her limbs. She hears her ferret friends chittering in amusement, and heat flares across her cheeks.

"Given your tired state, it would take much too long to return inside. Therefore, carrying you offers the best option," Elsa explains in that matter-of-fact way Anna hates to admit she's grown used to hearing. The sorceress is also apparently stronger than she looks, as she hardly falters in her stride even with the redhead in her arms.

 _Unless I'm lighter than I think I am…_

"No, you are actually rather heav—"

Anna slaps Elsa's shoulder before she can think otherwise, cutting the Snow Queen off mid-sentence. The girl stiffens, hand still poised as horror sweeps over her. Oh, surely she's done it now! Instead, her host merely blinks slowly at the offending hand, brow furrowing slightly in what appears to be confusion.

"Is this not...how one jests?" Elsa finally asks, and Anna releases a breath she never noticed she was holding. It doesn't make this conversation any easier, unfortunately.

"You were...You were trying to _joke_ with me?"

"Admittedly it was a thoughtless action on my part, though it seemed as if it was the perfect time for one."

 _Oh...so just another cue in her script, then…_ Still...there's something off. Just a little bit. And Elsa herself seems to be aware of it if the subtle deepening of the furrow to her brow is of any indication. If Anna doesn't know any better, it would almost seem as if the unshakeable Snow Queen is...troubled.

Jen and Lee appear over Elsa's shoulder as she continues walking, with Lee nuzzling his head against his creator's cheek and Jen flopping down to curl against Anna's chest for the duration of the ride back inside. She can't help but stiffen at their proximity to the cold woman, but Elsa takes note of the change—as she always seems to—and sighs.

"If it will put your mind at ease, I promise I will protect them as best as I can from now on. Even if it is from myself," the Snow Queen says quietly. "I still do not understand why one would do such a thing, but I do understand that I—"

"Love."

Anna seems to have a habit of interrupting her host today, but she's past the point of caring for any consequences with the sorceress. Elsa has had numerous chances to punish her in some form for her interruptions, for yelling, for slapping, but...doesn't. "That's why...I care about what happens to Jen. To all of these little guys."

A little, empty chuckle passes through the blonde's lips. "Ah. Love...I see."

"Yes. _Love_ ," Anna stresses. She tries to keep her temper in check. "While they don't mean much to you, Jen and the others make me happy...they bring that bit of light I've been lacking lately back to my life and—" She halts in her speech. Jen chirps and cuddles into her, and the gesture is so warm and so sweet that Anna feels a rush of affection throughout her whole being.

"It's...such a foreign thing now," she hears Elsa admit softly, and she blinks up in surprise at the icy woman. Elsa is staring straight ahead and her expression is solemn—almost melancholy or wistful. Anna finds herself drawn to it...this is the most emotion Elsa has expressed and Anna can't help but feel sad for the woman carrying her.

"Don't you miss it?" Anna asks without really thinking about it. "Feeling love?"

There is a long pause and Anna would have thought Elsa is ignoring the question, if not for the slightest tilt of the sorceress' head.

"This may irritate you again, but you should know that I can't... _miss_ anything, as I am now," the Snow Queen replies as the doors to the ice fortress open at her silent command. "You really should know this by now. How many more times must I remind you?"

"Maybe I don't want to believe it," Anna retorts, though her words lack their usual temper. "I want to believe, deep down, that you can feel _something._ Or at least, you want to feel something."

The arms cradling her tighten their grip and she winces slightly in anticipation for an attack in case she has finally stepped out of line. After a few heartbeats without feeling the bitter bite of the cold on her skin, she allows herself to relax again.

"You presume much," is all Elsa says, her expression stony once more save for the subtle narrow of her eyes. The rest of the walk is silent save for an occasional chirp from Jen and when Elsa finally stops in front of Anna's door, Anna lets out a breath she hasn't realized she has been holding in relief.

"Thanks for carrying me." Anna gives the woman a tentative smile as she is gently placed back on her feet.

"It is no problem," her host coolly replies while Anna gives a mental cheer at having the strength to stand on her own again. "It was certainly...intriguing."

 _There's that word again._ Anna decides to let that thought go for now, merely sighing in place of any remark on it. "I think I'll rest for a little while. If I'm not awake by dinnertime, could you have it brought to my room?" A sheepish look settles on her face. "I-If it's not any trouble. I'm not trying to avoid you or anything! Or at least...not anymore, but…"

Elsa raises a hand to stop her imminent word vomit, and somehow even a simple action like that exudes elegance. "I understand. Your body has gone through much strain today—it will be working on replenishing its reserves, and in the meantime you will feel lethargic until tomorrow."

"I know what being tired after playing all day feels like, Elsa," Anna says with a roll of her eyes. A part of her wants to stick her tongue out. "I was a child once, you know. But...thanks. For conceding to my request."

The sorceress nods, and all of the ferrets—save for Jen—scamper up to find perches on her shoulders. It's a far cry from her usual coat, of course, and a faint thought passes through Anna's mind as to where the others could be at this time. "Regardless of our past disagreements, you are still my guest. As such, it would be remiss of me not to provide," Elsa says, and her lips curl into a small smile. "I shall take my leave, then. Sweet dreams, Anna."

She blinks once. Twice. _Was that…?_ "O-Oh, yeah! You too." A pause, and she nearly smacks her forehead at such a spectacular verbal blunder. "I mean...thanks. Again. I'll, uh...I'll see you later."

And with that, Anna slips fully into her room, closing the door behind her to hide her embarrassment from the world.

* * *

 _It is as I thought._

Alone in her room once more with Lee and the others dismissed to their duties, Elsa places a hand on her chest, directly over her frozen heart...or rather, her _mostly_ frozen heart. The leaks have been exacerbated in Anna's presence, as hypothesized, and she now requires more effort to compact and reinforce the ice. She grits her teeth as her powers flow, rebuilding the layers and filling in the cracks from her...experiment.

Keeping her heart constantly frozen while another force constantly seeks to thaw it, it seems, is more difficult than her act of freezing it long ago. Or rather...the more that has been thawed, the harder it is to regain the ice lost while in the presence of the one causing it. At least in her room, she is far enough away that the process of counteracting this strange force is a lot easier. But even so...

 _It has been a while since I've exerted such effort,_ Elsa thinks as a gasp escapes her lips and the soothing cold spreads through her chest, banishing away the lingering tendrils of warmth. She leans against her door for another moment before fully composing herself; back straight and steps of a normal gait.

 _However, once is not enough. I must replicate this again, to prove it is not a product of mere happenstance. Jen, Lee and the others were around as well_ — _there is a possibility their presences tampered with the results._

Elsa returns to her table on the balcony, to the cup of tea she had abandoned in order to urge Anna against contracting hypothermia down below. It is cold now, of course, but she takes a seat and sips the amber liquid regardless. Her gaze falls on the distant town that Anna once called her home—a point her eyes keep drawing to time and again in recent days. "At least I know now what is possibly driving this phenomenon," she muses aloud, setting the now-empty teacup with a muted 'clink' back on its saucer. "Love, apparently."

That damnable thing.

Although, she will admit there is a sort of poetic irony to be had here. Love is what caused Elsa to freeze her heart in the first place...and now, love seems to be the force counteracting it.

 _Albeit an indirect sort of love._ Her fingers drum absently on the table as her eyes narrow. _Anna lauds affection onto my creations_ — _loves them, in her words_ — _and they, in turn, grow to love her back. The question, then...is how? How does one feel something of that sort if they are made of nothing more than snow and ice? Unless_ —

The coldness in her chest pulsates, and Elsa inhales sharply.

 _Unless…_

She shakes her head to clear her thoughts of their absurdity. "No, no...that can't possibly be it. It's simply the link between creation and creator. Some sort of magic of mine that I have yet to understand."

And yet...that would still fall in line with the impossibility coloring her thoughts.

"No...There is another reason for it. I'll find it. I already gave my word to her, so it is imperative that I must."

Otherwise...for the sake of regaining her control, Elsa would have to break that promise. A deplorable thought, going back on one's word, but with such a situation, it then begs the question:

Which holds greater importance to her?

* * *

 **Our contributors for Part 3:** The Wandering Quill, pankite, iamrottingunman, a-brown-turtle, metaphoricalbutton/Immi


	4. Part 4

**PART 4**

* * *

Anna's no longer mad at Elsa for the events back at the cave—it's still a rather grim memory, of course, and she'll always worry for her friends. But Elsa at least seems to be making an attempt to understand. To unravel that 'intrigue' Anna apparently has.

She has a few thoughts of her own regarding the truth. After eight— _whoops, nine now_ —days of living with the Snow Queen, Anna would like to think she's picked up on a few of the older woman's quirks.

Such as the fact that Elsa's forgotten what it's like to love, and she's forgotten how people act when emotional. She's forgotten the intensity, the drive, the complications that come with them. It's probably why she had been intrigued by Anna in the first place...though Anna also suspects the isolation atop this mountain has left her out of touch with society and social behaviors as well…

Pretty sound theory, right?

Jen merely blinks in response, tilting her head, and Anna sighs heavily as she resumes her breakfast. "I keep forgetting you can't talk. I know, I know, you're a ferret—that much should be obvious. 'Silly, Anna—animals can't talk!' But you're just so nice and understanding that...it would be nice, don't you think?"

 _Maybe Elsa went crazy from this and wanted someone who could actually talk back,_ Anna thought as she continued eating. _Yeah...that could work._

Speak of the devil, the Snow Queen herself enters the kitchen, an icy train flaring after her instead of her coat of ferrets. She halts in her steps upon catching sight of Anna stuffing her face at the table, blue eyes slowing taking in that plate of food before trailing up to her puffed cheeks. Anna swallows, offering a sheepish smile.

"The dining hall was empty and it was past the time...so I came in here instead."

"Ah...I see."

Anna's cheek turns pink at the raised brow that graces Elsa's face. "Is...that okay?"

"It's fine."

The blonde sets to work preparing her own meal and for the first time since she's arrived, Anna can't help but wonder at how... _normal_ it is. A sorceress who could freeze armies—if the stories could still be believed in—standing sleepily in the kitchen, gathering her breakfast. A woman who housed a frozen heart in her chest opening her mouth in an admittedly adorable yawn.

"Hey."

Elsa's head turns, blue eyes smoothly sweeping over to meet hers, and Anna realizes she's spoken aloud. Cheeks heating a little further at having blurted out whatever has come to mind, she continues, "What did you usually do? Before I came here, I mean. Like...what did you do for fun?" Upon realizing that her frosty host might not remember what 'fun' is, she amends, "Er...maybe not _fun_ , but what did you do to pass the time?"

"Have you grown weary of the palace?" Elsa asks, and Anna knows by now that the woman won't be offended should she answer negatively. It is nothing more than clarification.

"Um...a little bit, yes."

"Hmm…" The blonde picks up her plate, walking over to the table to join Anna for breakfast. "There is a frozen lake some distance from here. I use it for...recreational purposes, I suppose. When even my palace's walls tire me."

Anna snorts. "What, like ice skating?"

"Yes, ice skating and…" She's thinking, biting her lip. Anna's a little confused… but even through the confusion, she wants a little more of this side of Elsa. Ah yes, she's melting, alright.

"And?"

"I do… build snowmen. Sometimes, I would build a little igloo so it'd look like a nice little family." Gods, that was adorable. Anna's cheeks nearly flushed red, but instead her jaw falls to the ground, and in her mind, there's nothing but the word, 'cute', swimming around. She never knew Elsa would have this side of her… building a family of snowmen… ice skating… adorable, yet sophisticated.

She clears her throat when she knows Elsa's waiting for her. "Well, I've not built a snowman in a long time and I'm not really sure if I remember how to build one perfectly so… after this, do you wanna build a snowman?"

"Do you know how to skate?" Elsa tilts her head.

"N-No."

"I'll teach you that too."

She tenses up. "W-wait, nonononono, I can't skate. I'll fall on you!"

"Well, you are pretty heavy." She's joking around?! "Just kidding. What's with the red face?"

Anna doesn't know if she's pissed or if she's embarrassed, but either way, there's no doubt that Elsa's frozen heart is thawing or else… she wouldn't be able to joke like that. She thinks.

She realizes she's holding in her own breath and let's it out. "Okay… then, just make sure you can hold me up when I fall."

"I did carry you once, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah." Anna waves her off.

It's still a little strange—how Elsa carried her yesterday. _Though it wasn't..._ un _pleasant, I suppose._..

They finish their breakfast in somewhat silence, broken only by Jen's occasional shenanigans and Anna's subsequent scolding of her furry friend. Somewhat amusing, considering Jen's creator is present too and offers no more than an arched brow and a flash of something in her glacial eyes.

That _something_ flashes again when Anna nearly trips in the snow outside, saved once more by the sorceress' proffered arm. She clutches at Elsa for stability in the thick snow, all but marching her way through while the blonde continues her steady pace as if they aren't even there.

"Can't you...oh, I don't know...clear a path for us, or something?" Anna grumbles when Jen bounds past, chittering in a way that comes across as snickering at her troubles. "Or at least give me more suitable shoes to wear for this…"

"Both would be a simple enough task," Elsa says with a slight tilt of her head. "Do you have a particular preference for one over the other?"

Anna gawps. "Are you kidding me? Both, please!"

A chuckle falls from the blonde's lips, and Anna would like to think it's a genuine, unscripted one this time. Elsa gives an artful flourish of her hand and the snow before them parts, clearing a path that extends beyond Anna's view. The girl gasps as the shoes she had found in her room's closet morph into a pair of comfortable boots more suitable for trekking through snowy surfaces.

"You stinker!" she exclaims, admiring her new footwear and releasing Elsa's arm. "You could've done this at any time and you chose not to?!"

Elsa chooses to focus on the first part, however. "I do not stink," she says, turning her face away so that Anna can't see her expression. "I take a bath every night—as do you, if my dwindling soap supply is of any indication."

"H-How do you know it's not wild animals coming by that private hot spring of yours?" Anna retorts, not entirely sure _why_ she'd want to den—oh, she's gone off course again. "Anyway, that doesn't matter!"

"I should think that cleanliness is in fact an important matter..."

 _Gods, this woman!_ Anna throws her hands up in the air, walking faster with the aid of her new boots to overtake Elsa and lead the way.

* * *

The frozen lake is massive—a detail Elsa quite obviously forgot to mention to her.

"Okay...I think I'm a little bit scared now," Anna says, trying to fight back the slight churning in her gut at the thought of being far away from solid ground. She swallows the lump rising in her throat, and Jen chitters encouragingly from atop a nearby rock formation.

She hears Elsa chuckling beside her, even though it's small. "If you fall, I'll be there to catch you."

Anna stares at her, and the hand that's holding her elbow. Somehow, with Elsa's skin so cold, she finds warmth. She turns to Jen, who's looking at her curiously, her head tilted to the left. "O-Okay…"

It doesn't take long for Elsa to form ice skates made out of… well, ice. It doesn't feel like ice though, and neither does it feel too cold. It's like glass.

"Are you nervous?" Elsa asks, noticing the girl chewing on her bottom lip. Anna doesn't know… because at the same time, she's feeling excited to get into the frozen lake with Elsa and have a little fun. She knows Elsa needs a little bit of fun. The redhead shrugs nervously as she holds onto Elsa's arm to stabilize herself from the thin blades underneath her feet.

She feels Elsa's grip tighten. "Well… A little…" They hear a chirp and immediately find Jen in the middle of the lake, gliding and pivoting around the ice. She smiles, but Elsa's more focused on the redhead. "So are you ready to teach me or what?"

Elsa's corner of her lips perk up to a smirk. "Do you really think I can teach you with your stance like this? You'll fall."

"You said you were going to catch me, so what's the harm?"

"I think it'd be you falling on top of me."

Anna rolls her eyes. "Come onnnnn…" She whines. They haven't got all day. "See, I can stand just fine-Whoa!" She's shaky, but she manages to stand upright and take a few steps towards the lake. "Okay, okay… we got this. Are you ready?"

"Are you?"

"I was born ready!"

'Born ready' as in holding onto Elsa tightly as they both take a step into the lake and almost managing to slip and fall on their hinds with Anna screaming and trying to drag Elsa down with her.

But Elsa's strong and she's quick to hold the woman around her waist. "I told you."

She rolls her eyes again. "Whatever, Ice Queen."

The woman arches her eyebrows. "Getting quite comfortable, are we? Here, just hold my hands and follow my lead."

 _Follow my lead, she says. As if it'll be fine..._

Well, Anna is _not_ fine and she most certainly can't seem to follow Elsa's lead. She feels as if she's slipping nearly every second they're out on the ice, and they've barely even left solid ground! She also knows now that Elsa can feel physical pain from the way the blonde winces every time Anna nearly crushes her hands, trying to keep herself from falling at even the smallest change in direction.

Which is often.

"Anna, just—"

A wince.

"Just try to—"

Another wince.

Jen chitters teasingly from somewhere nearby, and Anna sees the ferret sliding around the frozen lake without a care in the world. She's skating so effortlessly that Anna can't help but frown, features set into one of determination—to show her smug little friend that she can do this. Still crushing Elsa's hands in hers, Anna tries to mimic the blonde's movements with renewed vigor.

Glide, and pivot.

"There, see?" she hears Elsa say, and her heart swells in pride at her progress.

They skate further and further out onto the lake with Anna's gaze fixed on her own feet, too afraid to lose the flow she has going on. Eventually, the urge to look up grows too strong and she does so, realizing that Elsa is no longer in front of her. She starts to panic, nearly slipping dangerously, but a hand at her elbow keeps her upright. Turning her head, Anna sees that Elsa has merely shifted at some point to skate beside her.

"This is...This is pretty fun," Anna admits with a sheepish smile, and a smile of her own curves onto Elsa's lips.

It almost looks genuine.

"Would you like to skate on your own?" the Snow Queen asks. Anna begins to shake her head, to say that she'd rather her host stay close like this, when Jen suddenly glides by smoothly.

"You know what? I change my mind," she grumbles, glaring at her furry friend only to receive a distant chitter in reply. _Why that little…!_ "I think I'll be fine on my own for a little bit."

"If that is what you wish," Elsa says with a brief dip of her head, and her hand leaves Anna's elbow.

She's breathing heavy, knowing that she's trying extremely hard not to fall face flat on the ice. "Whoa… okay… okay…" She's gliding, but she doesn't seem to have absolute control over her feet. Unlike Elsa.

That woman has been circling around her backwards without looking, her hands behind her back. What a showoff. But she's watching Anna carefully. "Be careful, you want to bend your knees a little."

Anna doesn't hear what she's saying because she's concentrating too hard.

"Do you need help?"

"N-No! I can do this. Okay… bending my knees…" She bends them slightly, leaning forward slightly and she feels as if she's gotten everything under control.

"Just glide. Don't force it."

"I got it!" She yells and then follows her advice. Glide and pivot. Glide and pivot.

Elsa's slowing herself down as she comes behind the girl just so she can catch her if… well, when she falls.

It takes a while for Anna to get a hang of it-almost managing to fall a few times, but Elsa's arms supported her-but once she's in control, her smile widens, and she's gliding with the wind. She's proud, laughing as she encircles the lake a couple of times.

It surprising to see how fast Anna's getting this stuff… and how fast she's sliding around the ice. The color of her cheeks blossoms red, not because of the cold, but because she's free… and happy without Hans.

Anna doesn't need Elsa anymore… and she sees Elsa smiling a little when she gathers Jen in her arms-

 _Crack._

She doesn't slow down, but she hears the sound below… her eyes wandering to see where that came from.

 _Crack._

And they immediately widen as a large gap in front of her is spreading… the surface cracking. Her heart immediately stops, but her blades aren't slowing down, aren't even stopping. "Oh no…" she thinks and she turns to Elsa, eyes filled with fear. She catches a glimpse of the Ice Queen gliding towards her in panic, blue eyes glowing frantically as she tries to summon something… just something to catch Anna from falling into the pool of cold water and-

"Elsa…"

She's too slow.

Anna immediately hugs the ferret against her body, turning towards her back as she gets ready for the impact of ice sinking into freezing water. She hears someone call her name, and she's frantically trying to get ahold of something… but she's holding nothing more than pieces of fractured ice and water when she falls immediately.

She's gasping, trying to stay afloat, quickly bringing Jen up to the surface.

There's the screaming again.

But her vision is fading, and she's no longer taking deep breaths anymore as water fills her lungs.

* * *

 _Save her._

The thought flares in her mind, overriding all else.

With her experimentation today, her heart has been chipping faster in Anna's presence...though Jen is still present. It is only when the lake's frozen surface cracks and Anna falls into the freezing depths that the ice surrounding Elsa's heart receives a crack of its own, shattering through a great many of the frosty wards around it.

 _Save her_.

Jen's terrified gaze reaches Elsa from where she's already skating towards her redheaded guest, ice train billowing behind her.

 _Save her._

There can be no doubt about it now. With every part of her on alert, Elsa can feel the terror emanating through that faint link binding Jen to her. The bond keeping her creation alive.

It is Jen. Jen's love for Anna reflects itself on the state of Elsa's frozen heart.

Gritting her teeth in pain as the ice in her heart continues to crack— _a searing warmth pulsating in her chest it hurts it hurts it_ _ **hurts**_ —Elsa thrusts a hand upwards, fingers curling into claws as she skids to a stop just before the edge. A pillar of ice shoots up from the dark depths at her command, following her hand's upward movement and sending water cascading in its wake.

Anna— _motionless, drenched, barely breathing_ —lies at the top of her hastily-made construct.

" _Anna!"_

The cry that tears itself from Elsa's lips contains something that she hasn't heard in a long time. Its rawness holds something she once lost...once suppressed. Froze and laid dormant, locked away.

Terror.

Concern.

Her ice deposits Anna before her and Elsa sinks to her knees, hands reaching for Anna. Her chest hurts; the pain causing black dots to form in her vision, and Elsa violently stamps as much of it down as she can. Jen chitters worriedly from somewhere nearby as Elsa searches for the pulse on Anna's neck, hoping— _for the first time in forever she's hoping_ —that she's not too late.

It is faint. Incredibly faint. But it is there nonetheless.

A hand just over Anna's parted mouth reveals that the she's hardly breathing, and Elsa leans down, pressing her ear to the girl's chest.

Water. The first thing she hears is something sloshing about inside.

Grimacing, Elsa leans back to place both of her hands on Anna's chest and gives several firm pushes. The girl's body jerks with each one, but the water has yet to be expelled from her lungs.

Worry.

Fear.

If Elsa had the strength and focus to spare, she would have at least tried to refreeze the portions that have cracked and broken apart from this. As it stands, a thought lurks at the edge of her mind, away from her current focus on saving Anna. As she continues to push, as she leans forward for this one desperate attempt, however, Elsa can hear it whispering faintly in her ears.

Of how she's passed the point of no return.

Her lips brush against Anna's, mouth covering her own, and she offers her own air to restore the girl's depleted supply. Elsa pulls away almost immediately, hands pushing again, and dips her head down for another pass.

 _Please…!_

She does not know whose thought it is— _hers, Jen's, hers, Jen's, hers_ —but eventually her repetition yields hope in the form of Anna coughing violently as the water is expelled from her lungs. The girl's eyes flutter open, and Elsa helps her sit, patting at her back to help get rid of whatever water is left. Anna coughs several more times, and Jen chitters worriedly nearby, trembling from the effort of restraining from launching herself into the girl's arms.

"E...E-Elsa…?"

Her voice is raw, rough, and Elsa helps her to her feet. "We have to get you back to the palace," she says, fighting down the quaver in her voice as she tugs Anna further away from the water's edge.

The girl's clothes are of Elsa's make—they won't do at all for keeping her warm, being fashioned of ice and snow. Features hardening at what she must do, Elsa scoops Anna into her arms—bridal style once more—and calls upon her powers to form a slide of ice. Before the girl can even protest at the suddenness of the action, Elsa sets off, skating frantically as the slide continuously forms beneath her. She does not look back to see if Jen can keep up with them—the ferret is of little concern for now, not when Anna could still die of hypothermia.

Elsa all but glides across her snowy domain, arriving at her ice palace in record time. Instead of the front doors, she heads for the bridge leading to the kitchen, the only place to safely start a fire. Anna nearly shrieks as Elsa launches herself into the air via a pillar of snow. For a moment, it would seem they would crash into the protective ice surrounding the bridge, but at Elsa's command, the glass-like barrier parts to let them through.

While her landing leaves much to be desired, Elsa pays it little thought as she scrambles forward, rushing into the kitchen area.

"I-I-I can st-stand on m-my own, y-you know!" Anna says between chattering teeth, and Elsa allows her. Her hands are little more than a blur as she lights a fire in the kitchen's hearth, hands clenching and unclenching restlessly as the flames grow far too slowly for her liking.

"Strip," Elsa commands once Anna is standing beside the fire, her hands already reaching for the girl's clothes…

 _Slap!_

"Anna, there is a chance you will still die if you remain in those wet clothes," Elsa all but hisses, ignoring the stinging in her cheek.

The girl blinks once, brow furrowing in confusion. "H-Hold on, you—"

 _I do not have time for this._

Anna screams as her clothes abruptly vanish from her body, hands immediately coming up to cover herself. There is no need—Elsa has already turned away. The garments are Elsa's creations, and as such, she can dispel them as she wishes. Ignoring Anna's cursing and flustered words, she strides out of the kitchen to head for the girl's room, where her old clothes are surely still there…

* * *

They do not speak for the rest of the day.

Nor the day after.

It's hard to tell who is avoiding whom. Perhaps they both are. But Anna's embarrassment at her naked state from two days ago dies down soon enough, and now she's searching for Elsa in her own ice fortress, hoping to apologize for recent events.

 _Just like those early days, I see…_ she wryly muses, closing the door to yet another empty room. Jen chitters unhelpfully on her shoulder, but Anna is grateful for her companionship, nonetheless. The ferret has hardly left her side since the lake's events—it is both a blessing and a curse, especially when Anna can't see because Jen's on her face…

"Could you...maybe show me where her room is? I'm pretty sure that's the only place I haven't checked at this point," Anna huffs, turning to look at the ferret.

Jen's nose twitches, and she blinks slowly. Darting her head forward to give a quick lick to Anna's cheek, she leaps off her shoulder and bounds away. Grinning at the thought of her request finally being granted, Anna all but runs after her.

* * *

A wry chuckle passes through her lips, echoing in the silence of her personal chambers.

Genuine this time.

Of course it would be. Her heart is already mostly thawed, and even with all of her strength, Elsa cannot fully return it to its previous fully frozen state. Not without killing herself in the process; pushing her body to its limits and exhausting her reserves in its entirety. The cracks have run too deep; the incessant warmth combating her attempts to refreeze with what seems like a limitless supply of energy.

At this point, she may as well wait for her heart to fully thaw before freezing it anew.

"It should not take more than three more days, at the rate it is going," Elsa muses aloud, returning her book to its proper place on her shelf—a smaller library than the one elsewhere in the ice palace, but it still serves her well. "I should be back to normal by the time Anna departs from this place."

As if summoned, a knock sounds on her door.

"Come in," Elsa calls and she watches the door open with a stoic expression on her face.

"Elsa?" Anna steps into the room and Elsa notes the slight hunch in her shoulders and the constantly flicker of her gaze as she takes in the only room of the palace she had yet to explore. "Can I talk to you?"

"Aren't you already?" Elsa asks dryly, the joke slipping out before she could stop herself. A smile splits the younger girl's face.

Elsa turns her head away, arms wrapping around her middle. She's forgotten how it feels to joke again, without thought, without plan.

It's...It feels…

"I...I never got to thank you," she hears Anna say, followed by the sound of her taking another step forward. "For saving my life at the lake."

"It is no problem." Keeping her voice calm and even used to be so easy before. She's forgotten how much it takes to conceal these...sensations.

Feelings. Emotions.

"Elsa, have you...have you been avoiding me? Again?" Anna's voice is quiet, but firm. She takes another step, and Elsa hunches her shoulders to her ears, cursing inwardly for the softness of her heart. It used to be so strong, so sure, so solid before.

Had she really been such a weak person before all this…?

"My heart is thawing, Anna," Elsa says in a voice just as quiet after the moment of silence following Anna's query. Yet another moment hangs between them—this time, one of shock. She hears the girl splutter a few times, trying to find words and failing. Until—

"How?"

 _How, indeed…_ Elsa chuckles, shaking her head. "Jen. It has always been Jen, I suppose." She pauses to gather her thoughts, and she can feel the girl's intense gaze burning into her back, demanding an explanation. "You see, Anna...when I first attempted to give life to my creations, I had no idea how to go about it. But somehow...I did. Somehow, I managed."

Elsa pauses once more, thinking back to those first few nights in the ice palace, alone with nothing but the winds of the mountain to pierce the silence. Her heart had been frozen for scarcely a day at that point...but she could still dream.

She could still have nightmares.

"It is only now did I realize that freezing my heart had not destroyed my ability to feel completely. But rather...suppressed it to an enormous degree," Elsa continues, "They were still there—I simply did not know it. And when I made my creations, gave life to them...apparently it was my emotions that provided the spark. Those sensations finding a new home outside of this ice."

"So...how does this concern Jen?" Anna asks, and Elsa cannot tell what the girl is feeling right now aside from worry over the ferret.

"You got her to love you," Elsa says softly, turning around to face her redheaded guest. "You gave her love, and it awakened that which had previously lain dormant inside of her. The piece of myself that I had lost to the freeze."

Her teal eyes are wide, her mouth parted slightly. Elsa looks away.

"Jen's 'awakening', so to speak, began to affect me. It began to chip away at my frozen heart. And eventually, you befriended and awakened the other ferrets as well. My heart began to thaw at a faster rate. I started acting...in ways that I hadn't. Not for a long time." _Carrying you, for one._ "That day on the lake, when you fell into the water but managed to save Jen, it…"

"That was the push, wasn't it?" she hears Anna say softly, and Elsa's head snaps up in surprise. The girl has a hand over her mouth, a myriad of emotions playing out in her gaze. "I-I mean...you could probably refreeze at any time, but with your heart still thawing right now…Do you...Do you no longer wish—"

"It would simply take too much effort to combat the thaw," Elsa cuts her off quickly, fighting to keep her mind from straying down that path, from listening to the voice whispering at the edge of her thoughts that perhaps she shouldn't freeze it again. "I will just have to wait until the process is complete before refreezing it."

"...Why?"

"Pardon?" Elsa furrows a brow at the younger woman and at the sadness that laced the word so thickly.

"Why would...you want to freeze it again?" Anna's arms wrap around her middle and she looks so...so heartbroken that Elsa feels her thawing heart _ache_ just looking at her expression. "Is it really so bad? Being able to feel again?"

"It is if it makes you look like that," Elsa answers. "I tried to end myself for a reason, Anna...why should I give life another chance to repeat history if I can prevent it in this way on my own terms?"

"Because things could be different this time!"

Anna's words reverberate around the room, and for a moment, Elsa can only stare incredulously. "Tell me, how could you possibly know that?" she finally asks. Snarls, almost. "How could you possibly know that the world won't inflict more pain?"

 _You'll leave me here, alone. You'll go where I can't follow, not as long as this magic runs through my veins. With the full weight of my isolation bearing down on me without the benefit of a frozen heart, how long do you honestly think I'll be able to last before freezing it again?_

"I don't. No one does," Anna answers with a calm, a surety, that Elsa has never heard from her before. Gone is the girl broken down by the weight of heartache and betrayal. In her place stands a girl who has moved past the pain, who has emerged stronger than before, who wields love as her sword and shield.

For love comes in different forms. And while she has not found the love she desires, she has found the love that she _needs_ to overcome her pain.

"You asked me before what it means to live without pain, and I didn't have an answer for you back then," Anna continues. "...But I do now."

The girl takes a step forward, arms unwrapping from her middle...to envelop Elsa in a tight embrace.

"It's not living. We're here in this life to get hurt. It's what makes us grow, what makes us learn from our mistakes, what makes us appreciate the things we still have. And if we have nothing…" Anna leans her head on Elsa's shoulder. "...Then we make our own. After all...the world is such a big place, as you said."

 _I did._

"And regardless of everything that's happened…"

 _Please...don't say it…_

"...I'm glad I met you."

Elsa's arms reach up to return Anna's embrace, hands fisting fabric as she buries her face into the girl's shoulder. There is a wetness in her eyes—almost terrifying in its foreignness. But what's even more fearsome is the clenching in her heart, the desire for more warmth as more of the ice falls away and leaves her open, raw, vulnerable.

"Will you stay?" Elsa's voice is quiet, no more than a whisper on the wind, yet Anna hears her anyway.

She feels rather than sees the smile against her shoulder.

"Of course."

* * *

 _ **FIN**_

* * *

 **Our contributors for Part 4:** The Wandering Quill, pankite, iamrottingunman

 **Note:** There will  not be a continuation to this.


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